Our Board

Kathey is Founder and Owner of Avery Health Education and Consulting, and a contracted nurse and Director of Clinical and Community Connections for the Asheville Buncombe Institute for Parity Achievement – ABIPA, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating health disparities.

Born in Bat Cave, NC, 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.

UNC Asheville and Buncombe County Health & Human Services recognized Kathey in 2016 with an Unsung Heroes award. She received the Lillian Carter Award for Exemplary Nursing from Modern Healthcare Magazine in 2017.
Kathey worked with, and served as a co-chair of Building Bridges, a 25 year-old program designed to address racism.