Buckner Receives 2023 UMNAA Young Achiever’s Award

March 22, 2023

Heather Elaine Buckner ’14 received the 2023 Nathalie Molton Gibbons Young Achiever’s Award from the University of Montevallo National Alumni Association at their annual luncheon Feb. 11 in Anna Irvin Dining Hall.

The award is given annually to an alum age 35 or younger based on the same criteria as the Alumni Achievement Award.Heather Elaine Buckner

Buckner, a Bessemer native and Atlanta resident, currently serves as a senior editor of Atlanta Magazine.

“Like lots of folks with similar backgrounds, I struggled with imposter syndrome,” Buckner said. “But I always felt like I belonged here (at the University of Montevallo).”

After graduating from UM with a degree in mass communication, Buckner became the managing editor of the Fort Payne Times-Journal in June 2014 and served in the position until February 2017 when she became managing editor of Atlanta Magazine.

While at Montevallo, Buckner worked as a copy editor and then editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Alabamian, and in the University Relations office as an assistant editor, copy editor and writer.

“Heather is one of those phenomenal talents that you don’t meet very often,” wrote one of Buckner’s advocates for the award.