Where Are They Now? Autumn Taylor

GW softball's 2011 home opener proved life-changing for Autumn Taylor.

The sophomore outfielder was in the starting lineup for the Colonials vs. UMBC in their season debut on the Mount Vernon Campus, marking an emotional final step in her recovery from knee surgery following months of pain-staking rehabilitation under the direction of athletic trainer Jillian Rubin.

"It was cool to see that she was just as excited as I was," Taylor remembered. "This was a journey we went through together. At that point, it felt like we completed it together, and it was really awesome. I was like 'I want to be able to feel this and help other people feel this.'"

Taylor would switch her major to athletic training later that semester, setting her on course to a rewarding career in sports medicine following her decorated run on the diamond. The Severna Park, Md., secured both undergraduate ('13) and master's ('16) degrees from the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health before joining the full-time staff at her alma mater.

Today, Taylor serves as Head Women's Basketball Athletic Trainer at the University of Illinois. Though she has moved on from Foggy Bottom, she remains an enthusiastic member of the Buff and Blue family.

"There's something about that place that has a strong pull for me," said Taylor, who earned All-Conference and All-Region honors as a senior in 2013. "There's so many things that I experienced for the first time as a student-athlete there, so many things that I experienced for the first time as an adult there. It definitely has a pull on my heart strings."

Thanks to the inspiration from Rubin, Taylor made the most of her opportunities at GW.

As an undergrad, Taylor completed fall athletic internships working at a pair of local high schools. The athletic training program required internships to span at least 200 hours, providing for quite a busy schedule around fall ball.

Taylor's typical day would feature an early morning lift before class and then hitting at The Vern before heading to her internship.

"It definitely taught me a lot about time management," Taylor said. "It was a struggle at times, but at the end of it, it was totally worth it. I love everything that I'm doing now."

After graduation, Taylor had no plans to come back. She took a gap year and started scouting graduate schools in California and Florida before running into Associate Athletic Director of Student-Athlete Health, Well-being and Performance Chris Hennelly at The Vern on Alumni Weekend.

Hennelly's suggestion to consider GW turned into two more years on campus as a graduate assistant working with the water polo programs.

"It ended up being a great decision," Taylor said. "It was cool because it felt like GW was really trying to push to keep me as a part of the family. They liked the fact that I went there and that was something special and unique to them and they wanted to foster that and help me continue to grow."

Taylor's stint working with water polo confirmed she was on the right career path. In her first weeks on the job in the fall of 2014, she helped an injured men's standout get back into the lineup in time for the season opener.

Later, a student-athlete on the women's team needed surgery and a months-long rehab process. When she returned to action that spring, Taylor celebrated with familiar excitement.

"There were hugs, there were tears, all that," Taylor said. "That's the moment where it's like 'This is why we do what we do.'"

After earning her master's degree in Exercise Physiology in 2016, Taylor moved across town to Catholic University, where she worked with a variety of teams, including women's basketball for the first time.

A year later, Taylor returned to Foggy Bottom, jumping at the opportunity to work with head coach Jennifer Rizzotti's program. That experience – highlighted by GW's run to the 2018 Atlantic 10 title and an NCAA Tournament berth – cemented her desire to continue working in the sport.

"You usually have 15 kids at max, so you get to have more of an impact on their everyday life," said Taylor, who also worked with GW women's rowing and men's golf. "You get to have more conversations with them. You get to see more of what they're doing all the time and see where you can make an impact."

In helping student-athletes, Taylor draws on her time representing the Buff and Blue, especially through her passion for mental health awareness.

At GW, she worked with Hennelly to arrange a series of mental health speakers in conjunction with GW Counseling and Psychological Services, and she helped recruit her former teammate Sandi (Moynihan) Gohn to lead yoga sessions for student-athletes.

It's a mission Taylor has continued at Illinois. In her first year on the job, she's helped launch a web page called Open Doors with mental-health resources for student-athletes, and she's been a leader in the Fighting Illini's participation in the Green Bandana Project to encourage conversation about mental health.

"Mental health has been huge for me," Taylor said. "When I was injured, I struggled a lot with anxiety and depression. I feel like at that time it was really stigmatized and no one really talked about it. I try to use my story as something to build upon to help our student-athletes now."

Although she's no longer based in D.C., Taylor's connection to GW softball remains strong through her former teammates.

There are plenty of good times to discuss for a group that helped lay the foundation for the program's recent success.

In 2010, the Colonials won just six games, but two years later, they not only qualified for the A-10 Championship but made a run to the program's first conference final. The next season, the Buff and Blue posted a then-record 27 wins and were in contention to claim an A-10 regular season title into the final weekend.

In recent years, Taylor and her teammates have relished reunions at weddings and alumni weekends, but the COVID-19 global pandemic has turned into an opportunity for a weekly video conference call.

"We all still have the greatest bond together," said Taylor, who remains among the program's all-time top 10 in triples, home runs, RBIs and total bases. "A lot of times we're reminiscing, but mostly, we just end up talking about our lives and where we're at. It's really great to see that we are still that close."

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