Kathey Avery, RN, BSN is the founder and owner of Avery Health - Education and Consulting, and IFPHA. She has over 35 years of experience in healthcare and community activism. Kathey is dedicated to raising awareness about, and helping in the prevention of, chronic diseases and preventable cancers through patient and public education and personal accountability.

IFPHA addresses the social determinants of health that affect financial stability. OnTrack WNC addresses financial literacy by helping people achieve their money and housing goals through financial education, counseling and support which aligns with Kathey’s personal and community nursing goals.

Born in Bat Cave, NC, at Valley Clinic and Hospital in 1953, Kathey graduated from Western Carolina University in 1983 with a B.S. in Nursing. She worked at Mission Hospital System for over 30 years where she specialized in oncology nursing and neurology. In 1995, she was instrumental in helping form the hospital’s first Diversity Committee and served on the committee until 2011. She was given the prestigious Martin Luther King Award by Mission Health in 2011.

Kathey worked with, and served as a co-chair of Building Bridges, a 25 year-old program designed to address racism. One of the founders of Building Bridges, the late Dr. Charles Blair, also started the Asheville Buncombe Institute for Parity Achievement - ABIPA, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating health disparities. Kathey proudly served his vision as ABIPA’s contracted nurse from 2008 to fall 2020, also serving as Director of Clinical and Community Connections until she moved on to devote herself to her own health education and consulting business and to establishing a community nursing initiative.