Dr. Avery is a former golf caddie, a former McDonald’s hamburger flipper (when they use to wear those funny hats), a former newspaper boy, and lots of other former things.  Dr. Avery earned his medical degree at the University of South Florida.  Next, he went to Chicago for an internship and residency at Northwestern University.  Brutally cold winters and winless Northwestern football teams drove him back to sunny Tampa where he completed a pulmonary and critical care fellowship in 1986 and enjoyed winning years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  After fourteen years of private practice in Clearwater, Florida he became the Senior Medical Director of The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, the largest hospice in the United States.  In January of 2004, he began his life-long dream of working in Manhattan as the Senior Medical Director of VNSNY Hospice Care.

Dr. Avery is a Fellow in the American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine, a Fellow in the American College of Chest Physicians, and a Fellow in the American College of Physicians.  He is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.  In 2007, Dr. Avery was awarded the Roger C. Bone Award for Leadership in End-of-Life Care by the American College of Chest Physicians.