Senior secondary education major Taylor Priestley of Portland, Oregon, was the NCAA Division II national honoree from the coaches group, joining Division I winner Megan Carroll of Hofstra and Division III honoree Taylor Chepren of Marymount.

Teams honored with the Team Community Awareness Award were Division I Winthrop, Division II Belmont Abbey, Division III Denison and from the NAIA, Warner University.

The individual Community Awareness Award recognizes student-athletes who have contributed significantly to their community in the past academic year. These students have given their time and energy to support and develop athlete-community relations and distinguished themselves from their peers.

Citation from IWLCA

Northern Michigan University players, including leading goal scorer Josie Lakosky, No. 1 at center, celebrate their win after a GLIAC women’s lacrosse game played against Concordia-St. Paul at the Superior Dome in Marquette on April 26. (Photo courtesy of Cara Kamps)

On the IWLCA website, www.iwlca.org/news_article/show/1342406, Priestley is cited with the following:

“Priestley … has earned the … award for her groundbreaking leadership in promoting mental health awareness among student-athletes.

“Through her tireless work, Taylor has created impactful, sustainable programs that are transforming the campus culture at NMU.

“Taylor is the founder of the Beyond an Athlete blog (nmu.edu/connection/beyond-athlete), a platform that allows student-athletes to share their mental health journeys and stories in their own words.

“As co-founder of Cats Connect, NMU’s first student-athlete mental health awareness organization, Taylor has connected students with resources from national nonprofits like HIlinski’s Hope (www.hilinskishope.org), Morgan’s Message (www.morgansmessage.org) and The Hidden Opponent (www.thehiddenopponent.org), while also securing university support and grant funding to expand their reach.

“Her leadership has driven major initiatives including Student-Athlete Mental Health Week, QPR (Question, Persuade and Refer) suicide prevention training and multiple mental health awareness games for NMU athletics.

“She personally organized events like yoga sessions, therapy dog visits and community service collaborations, all with a focus on wellness and destigmatizing mental health conversations.

“Taylor also played a key role in organizing a landmark event: ‘Tyler Talk: A Conversation with the Hilinskis,’ which brought the founders of Hilinski’s Hope to NMU for the first time, offering support and education to over 300 athletes, coaches and local community members.

“Balancing all of this during her competitive season, Taylor has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to building a healthier, more compassionate athletic environment.

“Her passion, initiative and impact make her a truly deserving recipient of the Community Awareness Award.”

Coach concurs

Lacrosse head coach Lindsey (LeMay) Majkrzak wholeheartedly agreed.

“I am so proud of and overjoyed for Taylor for receiving this award,” Majkrzak said in an NMU Sports Information news release about the award. “There is no one more deserving.

“She has made it her mission during her time here at NMU to make her community comfortable talking about athlete mental health and confronting their own struggles so that they may seek help.

“She made this mission a reality through years of getting involved and working to put events into action that would help spark change. This work started with herself, then spread to our program (coaches included), and then to our athletic department as a whole.”

Working far and wide

Specifically, Priestley is co-president of the NMU athletes’ mental health student organization Cats Connect, and through this organization she has helped plan and accomplish the following:

• Separated Cats Connect from the Student Athletic Advisory Committee and turned it into an NMU student organization to access greater resources and impact more students.

• Planned and accomplished the first student-athlete mental health week at NMU in tandem with the national student-athlete mental health week, working through the mental health awareness organization Hilinski’s Hope. The NMU student-athlete mental health week included a theme and activity for each day of that week, all planned and organized by Cats Connect and SAAC.

• Organized several mental health awareness events at sports contests, including volleyball, women’s wrestling and her own team, women’s lacrosse.

• Organized and accomplished bringing an outside speaker to NMU to speak to the athletic student body, which was one of the original goals for the creation of Cats Connect. The outside group brought to Marquette was the Hilinski family and others involved with Hilinski’s Hope. The Hilinskis met with coaches, staff and community members during their visit to Marquette, and ended their trip with a presentation to student-athletes. The event was the first of its kind on campus.

Priestley also has worked outside of Cats Connect in these ways:

• She organized a mental health awareness week for the lacrosse team leading up to its mental health awareness game. Each day, the team listened to a presentation about a different mental health organization and the resources it provided, with the team also completing a unique mental health activity during this week and creating an individualized mental health awareness shooting shirt to wear for the mental health awareness game.

• Priestley is NMU’s multi-year representative of the mental health organization The Hidden Opponent, a nonprofit advocacy group that raises awareness for student-athlete mental health and addresses the stigma within sports culture. Through this role, she has been able to provide resources and content on athlete mental health awareness to athletes throughout NMU’s teams.

• And she also created a student-athlete mental health awareness blog called Beyond an Athlete, allowing her to give fellow athletes a platform to tell their stories outside of sport. This blog is posted to the Center of Community and Connection website under Beyond an Athlete, and is reposted to the SAAC social media pages.

“Taylor will leave NMU better than she found it when she graduates in December,” Majkrzak said, “and then it will be our job to continue this important work with the tools that she’s left us.”

NMU CARE Team

CARE — Case Administration and Resource Education — is in simple terms a group of people who are available to support and guide any Northern student who is going through a difficult time, whether it be academically, emotionally or psychologically, according to the NMU SI release.

The CARE Team is different than the university’s Counseling and Consultation Services; CARE Team members use a case management model to help achieve a desired outcome.

They can be thought of as a personal champion to help guide with what is being dealt with while keeping students accountable to the commitment made to themselves.

The CARE Team is not a disciplinary entity, instead it’s a collection of people available to support well-being. Led by Emily Meier, who is its director of case management services, the CARE Team is comprised of personnel with expertise in student affairs, academic affairs, human resources, mental and physical health, student conduct and campus safety.

The CARE Team exists to address the unique needs and challenges students face.

“Taylor’s advocacy got Cats Connect off the ground in winter (semester) 2025 as an official student organization that supports students’ complete well-being,” Meier said. “As a co-president, Taylor was instrumental in setting up a QPR training for student-athletes, bringing the Hilinski’s Hope speakers to campus and collaborating with Green Athletes to promote sustainable activities for athletes.

“While Cats Connect was under the SAAC leadership board in 2024, Priestley supported her fellow athletes with Student Athlete Mental Health Awareness Week programming and care packages and started the Beyond an Athlete blog to promote more discussion around student-athletes’ identity beyond their sport; she passed her blog onto another athlete who will continue Priestley’s mission of giving athletes a voice.

“Priestley’s planning, dedication and passion for well-being led to Cats Connect to have a monthly focus for events and speakers on each dimension of well-being throughout the 2025-26 school year.”

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the accomplishment. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.