SIGNAL Media Wins Multiple APEX Awards
SIGNAL Media, AFCEA International's official media, won five categories of the APEX Awards for Publication Excellence 2026 award cycle, recognizing the staff’s articles, publications and blog. 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, the SIGNAL Media team won four individual awards and one grand award.
SIGNAL Kids, SIGNAL Media’s STEM magazine written by and for students ages 8-12, won the grand award for one-of-a-kind publications, recognizing Director of Advertising Strategies Rachel Lilly, Art Director Chris D’Elia and Editorial Assistant Courtney Bendedetto for their work on the publication.
The APEX Awards had this to say about the grand award: “SIGNAL Kids STEM Magazine manages to create a professional publication with excellent graphics that is powered by kids. Their consistency, their engagement of young content creators and the high quality of content will certainly keep their youthful readers curious about STEM.”
Lilly praised her teammates when discussing the success of SIGNAL Kids.
“Of all my accomplishments during my tenure at AFCEA, SIGNAL Kids stands out at the top. Not only for what we have produced as a team, but for the heart behind it,” Lilly said. “Every person who works on SIGNAL Kids does so voluntarily on top of their already full schedules. Chris D'Elia brings every issue to life, magically taking a million disparate pieces and creating the most joyful, beautiful and engaging layouts. My colleague Courtney Benedetto is invaluable, a proactive go-getter who drives us forward with creativity and tenacity. And of course, the eagle eyes of our editors Megan Lee and Cyndy Hogan, who catch our many mistakes and always make us look good!”
Benedetto said, “I am so grateful to be a part of the SIGNAL Kids team. We all put our hearts into making the magazine interactive and inspiring for kids, and I could not be prouder of what we have accomplished.”
SIGNAL Kids is published quarterly alongside SIGNAL Magazine, thanks to sponsor support.
“All this magic is powered by our incredible AFCEA chapter sponsors, including our Central Maryland and San Diego chapters for 2026, who make it possible to get SIGNAL Kids into the hands of schools and students,” Lilly said. “It's truly the coolest partnership between AFCEA headquarters and chapters and one of my favorite things about our magazine.”
The two issues submitted for the APEX Awards focused on cybersecurity and the intelligence community, respectively. The eight-page publications feature kid-reporter articles, games and other fun topics.
“SIGNAL Kids gives me the opportunity to work outside my wheelhouse as a designer and enjoy the imaginative spark of working on something new with an amazing team,” D'Elia said. “It’s nice to see this unique publication recognized.”
D'Elia, SIGNAL Media's longtime art director, also won in the Design & Illustration - Covers category. He has designed covers for SIGNAL Magazine for nearly 30 years.
For the covers submitted for the competition, D'Elia combined different images to create a specific look related to the monthly magazine's theme, along with styled text detailing information about the articles inside.
The covers recognized include imagery focusing on space technologies, the “China menace,” biotechnology and the military, and The Emerging Edge of technologies.
Pictures are worth 1,000 words, so those covers are displayed within this blog post.
Nuray Taylor, SIGNAL’s senior reporter and special projects manager, won two individual awards in two different writing categories.
“It's an incredible honor to be recognized by APEX for the third year in a row,” she said. “What makes this recognition even more meaningful is that each winning article has been a story I've been especially passionate about.”
"Drones and the Goal Toward a Safe FIFA 2026" won in the Feature Writing category. The November 2025 article took a deep dive into security preparations for the largest-ever FIFA World Cup, taking place now in North America.
“I've watched every FIFA World Cup since 2006—the year Lionel Messi made his tournament debut,” Taylor said. “Having the opportunity to write about the tremendous work our nation's security experts are doing to help ensure millions of fans can safely enjoy this global event felt especially meaningful.”
Taylor also won in the Writing/Topics - Artificial Intelligence category for "AI Education for America’s Youth."
“The AI education story was a very different kind of assignment,” she said. “Few topics spark as much passion as the future of our children. Speaking with these subject experts made it clear how deeply people care about preparing the next generation to succeed and create a better future than the one we have today. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape our world, the opportunities are extraordinary—but so is our responsibility to ensure young people have the knowledge, skills and safeguards they need to thrive.”
She added, “I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who responded to my emails and generously shared their time and expertise for these stories. I'm also especially thankful to Editor-in-Chief George I. Seffers, who encourages us to explore topics that may sometimes fall outside our traditional scope but are too important not to cover.”
Benedetto also received an individual award for the AFCEA 360 Blog in the Social Media/Content Creation - Best Series of Blog Posts category.
And yes, that's the very blog you're reading right now, with a guest writer because we couldn't have the award winner writing about herself.
The AFCEA 360 Blog covers topics important to AFCEA as an association and is an opportunity to spotlight AFCEA successes (such as this one) and individual members.
"Running the AFCEA 360 Blog is both rewarding and fun. It gives me a chance to connect with the AFCEA community and highlight its wide range of projects and accomplishments,” Benedetto said. “From veteran advocacy to STEM education support, I am constantly discovering ways our members are making an impact. I have met and shared meaningful conversations with many AFCEA chapter members over the past two years, and it has truly been an honor to tell their stories.”
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