Byllye Avery

Infobox scientist
name = Byllye Avery

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image_size = 150px
birth_date = 1937
birth_place = Deland, Florida
nationality = United States
field =
work_institutions =
alma_mater = University of Florida
Talledega College
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = Created the National Black Women's Health Project
prizes = - MacArthur Foundation's Fellowship for Social Contribution
- Gustav O. Lienhard Award

Byllye Yvonne Avery (born 1937) is a health care activist in the United States of America. She has worked to improve the welfare of African-American women by creating the National Black Women's Health Project in 1981. She has received the MacArthur Foundation's Fellowship for Social Contribution and the Gustav O. Lienhard Award for the Advancement of Health Care from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science, among other awards.

Avery was born in DeLand, Florida. She studied psychology at Talledega College, and earned an MA degree from the University of Florida in 1969. In 1995 Avery received a L.H.D. from Bates College.

Avery produced the documentary film "On Becoming a Woman: Mothers and Daughters Talking to Each Other" (1987). It features African-American women and their daughters talking about menstruation and related topics, such as sex and love. [http://www.indiana.edu/~bfca/collection/special/bavery.html] She has said that, when her own daughter menstruated for the first time, Avery threw a party for her. [http://www.umass.edu/journal/faculty/steve/errataarticles/avery.html]

References

* [http://www.bioethicscolumbia.org/faculty/avery.html Avery's short biography] from the Center of Bioethics at Columbia University.
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9125364?tocId=9125364 Avery's entry] at the online Encyclopedia Britannica