AFCEA and SIGNAL Communications Team
Meet the Staff
A dedicated and talented team based in Fairfax, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., produces the variety of SIGNAL Media products, bringing to bear a combined century-plus of experience in presenting technical news in understandable and meaningful ways that matter to readers. We are a multifaceted group with diverse personal and geographical backgrounds. Some served in the U.S. military; some started careers as dancers. Some prefer PCs and others talk only Mac. We have a mix of digital natives and digital immigrants. But all care deeply about AFCEA and believe in its mission and the mission of SIGNAL Media. Pride is in our DNA.
Sandra Jontz is vice president of Marketing and Communications and oversees the knowledge sharing and communications efforts of AFCEA, including editorial, advertising, production, marketing and all communications.
Prior to this position, she was the executive director of communications and employee engagement at ManTech and served as the editor of its employee quarterly magazine. She was a journalist for more than two decades, including with SIGNAL Media as its executive editor, and extensively covered the U.S. military, both from within the United States and for nearly a decade overseas.
She served as a war correspondent, covering multiple military combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti and Bosnia and Herzegovina for the editorially independent daily newspaper Stars and Stripes. She graduated from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, with a degree in communications, emphasis in journalism, and holds numerous awards from the Virginia Press Association.
She has a B.A. in communications from George Mason University.
George I. Seffers is editor in chief and leads the editorial team in producing and delivering the award-winning and distinctive SIGNAL Magazine, considered a top benefit by the association’s membership.
Seffers has covered the full spectrum of technology issues for SIGNAL Media during his tenure at the association and supervises the team of writers and freelancers in producing top news, analysis and important perspectives on today’s most pressing topics in the cyber, technology, intelligence and national security domains.
Before becoming editor in chief, Seffers served as executive editor and director of content development. He first joined SIGNAL in June 2010 as the technology editor. Prior to joining SIGNAL Magazine, he was a media relations representative with Northrop Grumman and an internal communications specialist with Raytheon Technical Services Company. He has also been a reporter for Defense News and Federal Computer Week, where he covered a broad range of military and intelligence communications and electronics topics.
Seffers earned his bachelor’s degree in English and Communications from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. A veteran, he also served in the U.S. Army as a 31 Victor, or tactical communications specialist, for seven years. In fact, he and five of his six siblings served in the Army. Of those five siblings, three also were in the Signal Corps.
With more than 20 years of journalistic experience, Kimberly Underwood is an award-winning journalist who leads the online content creation for SIGNAL Media, the official media for AFCEA International. Underwood is the director of Digital News Media, guiding the news reporting team’s development of online news coverage across the military services, cyber, defense operations, emerging technologies, intelligence and other areas.
As a powerhouse for online coverage herself for the last six years at SIGNAL, Underwood reports on the U.S. Air Force, Space Force, Congressional, cyber, international news and emerging technologies. On the broadcast side of the communications group, she has hosted more than 100 hour-long, live webinars as well as a dozen shorter, 20-minute videos featuring technology industry corporate executives. She is the host of SIGNAL Media's podcast—Disruptive By Design—featuring AFCEA’s Emerging Leaders community. On the podcast, released every other week, Underwood speaks with leaders who are 40 years and younger about their perspectives on technology advancements, leadership and the military.
She joined AFCEA in 2017, bringing more than 15 years of experience as a reporter, writer and analyst, mostly within the energy industry—specializing in the electric utility sector, renewable energy and the natural gas industry. Underwood earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economic theory from The American University in Washington, D.C.
Nuray Taylor is a senior reporter and special projects manager with AFCEA International's SIGNAL Media. Taylor's major responsibilities are to cover the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps technology programs, lead research efforts and special projects, and conceive, initiate and coordinate efforts to enlarge the SIGNAL Media audience.
Taylor rejoined AFCEA in December 2024 after working in the marketing field for the space industry. Her earlier role with AFCEA was as a content strategist and contributing writer and reporter.
A University of Houston (H-town proud!) graduate, Taylor's background is in marketing and public relations.
Evan Lynch is a SIGNAL Media reporter who focuses on writing about the U.S. Army and producing the AFCEA 360 blog.
Lynch comes to AFCEA from Nexstar Media Group’s D.C. News Show, where he most recently worked as an associate producer writing scripts, getting breaking news into the shows, importing graphics and editing video for the company’s nightside newscasts. He has experience with video and podcasts and has even written a couple of online stories for SIGNAL Media as a freelance writer.
Lynch holds a Bachelor’s degree in journalism with a concentration in criminal justice from the University of Maryland.
As SIGNAL Media’s senior director of editorial and executive communications, Cyndy Hogan’s responsibilities include production and editing of all SIGNAL Media content for the web and print magazine, as well as other association communications, including executive communications.
Hogan has an extensive background of working in association publications. She spent more than 12 years at the National League of Cities, serving as managing editor of its weekly newspaper and managing other print and online communications for the association. She also served as publications coordinator for the Association of University Programs in Health Administration.
She began her career as a reporter for The News & Advance, the daily newspaper in Lynchburg, Virginia. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in mass communication from James Madison University.
Megan Lee is SIGNAL Magazine’s Associate Editor for print and online content.
Before joining SIGNAL, Lee was a freelance editor and copywriter for professional editing services, publishing houses, and private clients. She also worked for 13 years as a high school English teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools.
She holds a B.A. in music and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from George Mason University.
Chris D'Elia is the art director for SIGNAL Media, a post he has held for more than 15 years.
He is responsible for the look and feel of SIGNAL Media collateral, including the magazine cover designs. He lays out each issue and helps the association with special projects and ads. He also helps small business advertisers promote themselves by helping them with advertising design.
Courtney Benedetto joined AFCEA International's Communications team as editorial assistant in June 2024. She is a digital-savvy, detail-oriented and passionate journalist and a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University—Schreyer Honors College University Park, with a bachelor’s degree in digital and print journalism. She served as the managing editor of The Daily Collegian. As a student of an international reporting class, Courtney traveled to Istanbul to report on the city’s cat overpopulation and learned how to turn her print story into a TV package.
Lydia Antonio-Vila is AFCEA’s Social Media Coordinator. She has worked in news and nonprofit industries. Her most recent role was as production assistant at NBC News, where she did research for the Nightly News team and coordinated between shows and reporters for live hits.
Antonio-Vila also worked on the programs team at the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), a nonprofit organization that supports journalists all over the world, and as a reporter for the Fairfax County Times newspaper.
She graduated from George Mason University with a B.A. in communication, specializing in journalism, and a minor in global affairs.
Rachel Lilly is AFCEA's Director of Advertising Strategies.
She was most recently the communications manager and handled the association's strategic social media process, including development and implementation of strategy, manages the quarterly SIGNAL Kids special publication and performs other editorial duties.
Before joining AFCEA International, Lilly worked as a news producer for the NBC and FOX affiliates in Roanoke and as a reporter for Examiner.com and Bisnow Media.
She graduated summa cum laude from Virginia Tech with a B.A. in communication, specializing in electronic and print journalism, and a minor in English. She has an M.A. in communication from Johns Hopkins University with a dual concentration in digital journalism and public/media relations.
Claudia Perez serves as the advertising, marketing and publications senior coordinator. Before her position at AFCEA, Claudia was a sports marketing intern at LRL Racing in Richmond, Virginia, which specialized in advertising and client-based promotion for the Bull Riding and NASCAR industry.
Perez took part in Virginia Commonwealth University’s first-ever Camp ADventure in 2020, a program that provided students across the nation internships in place of ones that were lost because of the pandemic in 2020. Through Camp ADventure, Perez and her team curated a new fundraising campaign for the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
Perez received her Bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2021 in mass communications with a concentration in strategic advertising and a minor in psychology.
Howard Wahlberg serves as AFCEA’s Senior Director of Marketing, focused on building brand awareness, revenue, visibility, and growing the association’s membership and constituent base through traditional and digital marketing and media efforts.
Wahlberg is an experienced communicator, moderator and public speaker and has done voiceovers for a variety of videos, podcasts and training sessions for AFCEA and other organizations.
Before joining AFCEA International in 2014, Wahlberg served a number of associations and other nonprofits. His career in the arts and education led him to such diverse organizations as The Big Apple Circus, Arena Stage, PBS, Challenger Center for Space Science Education and The National Science Teaching Association. Specializing in data analytics and digital marketing, he increased visibility, revenue and awareness through a number of initiatives at these organizations.
Wahlberg began his career in the performing arts, studying English and theater at Rutgers University, and later studying professional circus clowning at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.
Chrysi Lopez is AFCEA’s director of marketing and helps implement the association’s full range of marketing efforts.
Before joining AFCEA in 2021, she was senior associate director of marketing at NAFCU, the leading trade association for federally insured credit unions. In that role, Lopez helped lead the marketing strategy and execution to reach the association’s event, product, service and membership recruitment and retention goals.
Lopez holds a B.S. in business administration and marketing from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Certified Marketing Executive designation from Sales & Marketing Executives International.
Alex Horn provides support for a host of marketing efforts across the enterprise, focusing on the offerings of AFCEA International’s Professional Development Center: in-person, instructor-led courses, on-demand courseware and degree and course offerings from the association's Preferred Providers.
Horn comes to us most recently from Amazon, where he progressed from area manager to account executive, with a focus on marketing. Prior to that, he interned at Trembling Giant Marketing, where he learned marketing fundamentals in practice.
Horn is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in marketing. He is an avid hockey player.