Byllye Yvonne Avery was born in DeLand, Florida in 1937. She studied psychology at Talledega College, and earned an M.A. degree from the University of Florida in 1969. In 1995 Avery received a L.H.D. from Bates College. She has worked to improve the welfare of African-American women by creating the National Black Women's Health Project in 1981 (the name was later changed to the Black Women's Health Imperative). She also founded Avery Institute for Social Change. In 1989, Avery received a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award, and she is also a past recipient of the Gustav O. Lienhard Award for the Advancement of Health Care from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science. Other honors include the Lifetime Television's Trailblazer Award, Essence magazine's Award for Community Service, and the President's Citation of the American Public Health Association. 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 sex, love, menstruation and other personal issues. Avery is a clinical professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and advisor to the National Institutes of Public Health, and has served as visiting fellow at Harvard School of Public Health.
From the guide to the Byllye Avery Papers MS 652., 1976-2005 (ongoing), (Sophia Smith Collection)
