Avery Anderson PhD, PMHNP-BC, APRN

Dr. Avery M. Anderson is an Assistant Professor and Endowed Early Scholar in Psychiatric Mental Health. He comes to CU after completing his PhD at The Ohio State University. Anderson’s research focuses on addressing mental health disparities among transgender and gender diverse (TGD) young people. His dissertation examined contextual minority stress (family, school, religious/spiritual, and work) and suicide outcomes among TGD young adults. Anderson has a special interest in health equity research and elevating community voices to best identify and address needs. Extending his program of research on psychological and physiological mechanisms contributing to suicide among TGD young people, Anderson is also interested in upstream, family- and community-level interventions. TGD young people are disproportionately affected by this complex, preventable, and fatal phenomenon, and Anderson’s overarching goal is to enhance this body of knowledge toward prevention.

Anderson has been a licensed nurse since 2017 starting at the bedside on the inpatient psychiatric unit at Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s (Columbus, OH). Later as a Clinical Leader in that unit, Anderson was involved in clinical decision-making during their transition to and opening of the largest and most comprehensive pediatric mental health center in America. He has since been licensed as an advanced practice psychiatric mental health nurse. During his time with Nationwide Children’s, he also served as the Policy Oversight Coordinator, an Education Nurse Specialist, and a Nurse Scientist. As an educator, Anderson focuses on LGBTQ patient care, health equity, and psychiatric mental health nursing. He currently holds a part-time appointment as a Nurse Scientist with Children's Hospital Colorado.

Anderson values and actively seeks multidisciplinary team science as well as community participation in research. He also engages in policy advocacy related to TGD human rights. Most recently in Ohio, this involved testifying against proposed legislation that would restrict access to healthcare for TGD youth among other endangering proposals. As a transgender man himself, Anderson is passionate about this research, education, and advocacy.