Byllye Avery

Byllye Yvonne Avery (born 1937) is an American health care activist, who 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 and studied psychology at Talledega College, earning her MA degree from the University of Florida in 1969. In 1995 Avery received a L.H.D. from Bates College.

Avery produced a documentary film which features African-American women and their daughters talking about menstruation, sex and love, entitled On Becoming a Woman: Mothers and Daughters Talking to Each Other (1987).

References

• Avery's short biography from the Center of Bioethics at Columbia University.
• Avery's entry at the online Encyclopædia Britannica
• Byllye Avery Collection at Indiana University Bloomington Black Film Center/Archive