AF Members Win Buckley Awards

Tonight, the Young Conservatives Coalition will award five young professional conservatives with their prestigious Young Conservative Leadership “Buckley Award.” Join us tonight at the Capitol Hill Club to congratulate them during an event cosponsored by the Young Republican National Federation, America’s Future Foundation, the College Republican National Committee, and Allegiance Direct.

The awards recognize individuals between the ages of 21-40 who’ve made a significant contribution to the conservative movement at large in the last year. The awards are in honor of the late William F. Buckley Jr. – a conservative movement leader/icon who founded National Review and wrote God & Man at Yale all before the age of 30.

This year, several AF members are bring recognized. Katie Pavlich is a regular guest on AF Radio, Patrick Coyle refers YAF graduates to AF, Alex Schriver is a participant in AF’s Liberty Alumni Group and a regular sponsor of the AF Gala, and Heather Pfitzenmaier helps coordinate regional programs with Heritage Foundation and AF chapters.

The Young Conservatives Coalition is a DC-based, young professional conservative leadership, educational, and networking organization dedicated to initiating and fostering valuable working relationships for professional development to advance the conservative movement. They organize numerous educational and professional networking events throughout the year including Reaganpalooza – the largest annual gathering of young professional conservatives in DC.

Here are the biographies of the Buckley Award winners:

Katie Pavlich – Townhall.com, News Editor & Author of bestseller Fast & Furious

Katie Pavlich is the news editor for Townhall.com and a contributing editor to Townhall Magazine. She is the author of the New York Times Best Seller Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up. Her book was timely and helped shaped the debate over the ‘Fast & Furious’ controversy. As a reporter, she has covered topics ranging from White House scandals and the 2012 presidential election to the Second Amendment and border issues. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona with a degree in Journalism and is a current National Review Washington Fellow. Pavlich has shared her perspective on multiple media venues including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and Fox Business, in addition to a host of national and local radio shows. Her deep love of the outdoors and respect for firearms are rooted in the formative experiences of growing up in the mountains of northern Arizona, rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, and hunting big game with her father in the forests and deserts that Barry Goldwater called home.

Lila Rose – Live Action, President

Lila Rose, a recent UCLA graduate, has dedicated herself to building a culture of life and ending abortion. At age 15, Lila founded Live Action, a pro-life nonprofit which specialized in investigative journalism, media and youth education. Live Action works to expose abuses in the abortion industry and advocate for human rights for the pre-born, using new media to educate and mobilize both local and national audiences. Rose has led numerous undercover investigations exposing corruption and illegal activity at Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion chain. She also founded the largest pro-life student magazine The Advocate, which is circulated at over 300 high schools and college campuses with a circulation of 200,000. Rose is a frequent guest on radio and television programs including The O’Reilly Factor, The Glenn Beck Show, CNN, EWTN and the Laura Ingraham Show. Numerous newspapers and blogs have also covered her work including feature pieces by Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times and National Review. CNN featured Rose in a documentary “Right on the Edge.” Rose has written for magazines and news groups including Politico, the Hill and First Things.

Patrick Coyle – Young America’s Foundation, Vice President

Patrick Coyle is responsible for overseeing student programs including creating and implementing new activist initiatives, resources, and materials. A few of the programs created under his tenure include the 9/11: Never Forget Project, No More Che Day and Freedom Week. Human Events named Coyle as one of the top ten young conservative activists in the nation, citing his success in reaching hundreds of thousands of students by sending high profile conservative speakers to college campuses. He is also co-editor with Foundation president Ron Robinson of The Conservative Guide to Campus Activism and wrote the Campus Conservative Battleplan, both of which are published by Young America’s Foundation. Coyle is a graduate of Penn State University, where he first became active in the Conservative Movement by joining the Penn State Young Americans for Freedom (PS-YAF) of which he eventually became chairman.

Alex Schriver – College Republican National Committee, National Chairman

The CRNC is the elected governing body representing more than 250,000 members on over 1,800 campuses nationwide. Schriver served as Deputy Political Director for Alabama Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Bradley Byrne and on the Alabama Republican Party’s Steering Committee in 2010. Most recently, Schriver worked at The Gula Graham Group, a Washington D.C. based political fundraising and consulting firm. Schriver has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, POLITICO, ABC News, & Roll Call. He has also appeared on television for Fox News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NBC News, PBS, & CNN. Schriver serves on the Board of Directors for Crossroads Generation, a SuperPAC formed by the CRNC, American Crossroads, Republican State Leadership Committee, and the Young Republican National Federation. Schriver now sits in the same chair that Karl Rove, Lee Atwater, Morton Blackwell, and Grover Norquist once sat. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Auburn University.

Heather Pfitzenmaier – Heritage Foundation, Young Leaders Program Director

As the dedicated director of the prestigious Young Leaders Program, Pfitzenmaier oversees The Heritage Foundation’s efforts to reach out and promote their mission to the next generation of Americans. YLP is part of the think tank’s External Relations division. These programs include a rigorous internship program, expanding campus outreach events and “video webchats” through their Virtual Think Tank. Pfitzenmaier, who joined Heritage in 2007, previously was intern coordinator for the Young Leaders Program and has had thousands of young conservatives matriculate through her program – training the next generation of conservatives. Herself an alum of Heritage’s intern program, Pfitzenmaier holds a bachelor’s degree in English and political science from the University of Michigan. She was born in Royal Oak, MI and grew up in Livonia, MI.