SIGNAL Media Brings Home APEX Awards in 2025
AFCEA International’s official media, SIGNAL Media, has won five categories of the APEX Awards for Publication Excellence 2025 award cycle, recognizing the staff’s articles, podcasts and publications. The annual competition is sponsored by Communications Concepts Inc., a company that advises publishing, public relations and marketing professionals on how to improve their publications.
This year, SIGNAL Media’s team won four individual awards and one grand award.
Nuray Taylor, SIGNAL’s senior reporter and special projects manager, alongside former SIGNAL reporter Diego Laje, received the grand writing award for their “Disinformation in the Age of AI” article, which addressed the concern of artificial intelligence threats against election security. Taylor said she learned and grew as a reporter throughout the collaborative experience of crafting this article with Laje.
In addition to the grand award, Taylor won a technical and technology writing award for her July 2024 article “Food Security: Mitigating the Dangers of Digital Poison.”
Before reporting for SIGNAL Media, Taylor was social media coordinator for some of Houston's small business restaurants, so she said writing this story was a mix of her two worlds.
“The chefs I worked with consistently educated their staff and the public on the importance of knowing where your produce comes from, ensuring that every ingredient served was treated with the utmost respect for everyone's health and safety. For most small business farmers and restaurateurs, especially since the pandemic, the goal is to keep the doors open and the staff employed. Bringing more awareness to just how vulnerable the food and agriculture sector is to cyber attacks is scary but vital for our everyday well-being. One wrong ingredient and the dish is ruined,” she shared.
Under the academic research category of the APEX writing awards, Editor-in-Chief George I. Seffers won for his article “Meet Millimobile, the Mighty Mini-Bot,” a feature on a small, self-driving robot powered by light or radio frequency. This article made an impact larger than Seffers was expecting.
“It would be tempting to think of ‘MilliMobile, the Mighty Mini-Bot’ as a fun, cute, story. But shortly after that story came out, we received an email from someone in the Pentagon asking how to get in touch with the researchers because the technology involved might apply to a project he was working on and might provide a military advantage. After introducing him to the researchers via email, I got to witness an email exchange in which they discussed—to the degree they could in such a setting—ways to modify the technology to meet the need,” Seffers explained. “When we help find solutions for our warfighters, we at SIGNAL Media know we're doing our jobs well.”
Taylor highlighted the teamwork between SIGNAL staff members and how it has contributed to the media outlet’s success.
“The most important thing to say here is a huge thanks to everyone at SIGNAL, but especially George Seffers who approves the stories we believe in and supports us throughout each process,” Taylor said.
Aside from written content, in the electronic media category, Kimberly Underwood, SIGNAL’s director of digital news media, received an award for her work on SIGNAL Media’s “Disruptive By Design” podcast, specifically for the episode, “Going Beyond Fake News: Disinformation & Misinformation.”
In this episode, Underwood interviewed experts to discuss the rapidly evolving cyber threats related to misinformation and disinformation, and how artificial intelligence, deep fake technology and machine learning have the potential to greatly expand the capabilities and reach of the phenomenon.
“To have the caliber of experts that discussed the details about disinformation and misinformation speaks to the strength of the AFCEA community,” Underwood said. “It was their thought leadership that made this podcast episode award-winning, for which I am thankful.”
SIGNAL Kids, SIGNAL Media’s STEM magazine written by and for students ages 8-12, won the one-of-a-kind publications award, recognizing Art Director Chris D’Elia, Director of Advertising Strategies Rachel Lilly and Associate Editor Megan Lee for their work on the publication.
The May 2024 issue of SIGNAL Kids, titled “Summer of STEM,” received the award. It featured an article written by an 11-year-old on the role of girls in science, fun outdoor crafts inspired by STEM concepts and an interview with a registered nurse.
“Conceptualizing and helping to bring SIGNAL Kids to life has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my 15 years at AFCEA International so far,” Lilly said. “The icing on the cake is getting to work with our art director, Chris D'Elia, who has the most amazing ability to bring any vision to life (and inject fun, color and joy into our magazine). I'm really proud to be part of AFCEA's mission to inspire the next generation of STEM leaders."
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Related: The Disruptive By Design podcast episode was inspired by the AFCEA Cyber Committee's white paper "'Digital Chatter' — The Growing Challenge of Mis/Disinformation."
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