Iowa Magazine Earns Top Honor Among Education Publications

The University of Iowa’s Iowa Magazine for alumni and friends has been recognized with the 2026 Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year Award, the highest magazine honor in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s annual Circle of Excellence Awards.

Judges praised Iowa Magazine, stating, “This is an excellent magazine with exceptional design, story selection, and storytelling. [We] liked its food issue, which included articles on everything from favorite Iowa City haunts to what a football player eats on game day to food safety to an alum who was a food critic, and a lot more. The photography is outstanding, and we loved the wraparound cover.” 

In addition, the publication received gold in the category of Magazines: Alumni/General Interest: Four-Year Colleges and Universities (Printed Three+ Times a Year), silver for Magazines: Single Topic/Special Editions for the summer 2025 food-themed issue, and gold in Design: Covers for the fall 2025 cover featuring a painting of author Kurt Vonnegut by artist Red Danielson (22MFA).

This year, CASE received 4,185 entries from 628 institutions and 33 countries for consideration in the Circle of Excellence Awards, recognized as the premier accolades for educational advancement from institutions around the world.