about me

Avery is an entrepreneurial leader with a deep passion for finding and accelerating climate, conservation and poverty solutions. She currently leads the social entrepreneur fellowship program at the Mulago Foundation.

Previously she was the CEO of Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), an organization that connected over one million people to essential health care, education and economic opportunities by building trail bridges to connect the last mile.

Avery completed an MBA at Säid Business School at the University of Oxford, where she was selected as the Managing Director of the Oxford Seed Fund. As the leader of the 11-person MBA team, she oversaw deal flow, due diligence, and term negotiation for high growth Oxford-led startups, while also being responsible for screening applicants for the Skoll Venture Awards.

Avery completed a MSc. in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder following her BSc. in Civil Engineering and a BA in Studio Art from the University of Iowa where she was a scholarship Division 1 soccer player. More recently, she taught at the University of Colorado in the Mortenson Center for Global Engineering where she later sat on the board. She currently serves as Vice Chair of Helvetas USA, and is the Finance Chair of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) Aspen Chapter.

Avery has been an active public speaker, reaching audiences as varied as a plenary at the United Nations, to TED. She was featured in the IMAX film Dream Big, was named one of the world’s top 25 most newsworthy engineers by Engineering News Record (ENR), was honored on ENR Mountain Region’s Top 20 Under 40 list, and was selected as one of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Fresh Faces, which recognizes the top ten Civil Engineers under 30. Avery is a Distinguished Young Alumni of The University of Iowa, recipient of the Recent Alumni Award from The University of Colorado at Boulder, and received an honorary PhD from Clarkson University.

Avery currently lives in California with per partner, Moki (see below) and Wilder (smaller). She's an active hiker, soccer player and climber.