Presenter: Dr. Avery Bechthold

Title of talk: “Promoting Value‑Aligned Living in Serious Illness: A Program of Research”

Brief bio:

Avery Bechthold, PhD, RN is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Nursing. Her research focuses on developing and testing interventions that optimize values elicitation and enhance alignment between daily living and personal values among adults living with serious illness and their family caregivers. Her work has been supported by awards including the 2023 Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar Award, the 2023 Sigma/HPNF End of Life Nursing Care Research Grant, the 2025 UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care Palliative Research Enhancement Project Award, and internal UTK funding. Dr. Bechthold’s preliminary findings informed her emerging intervention, VALUED-LVAD (Value-Aligned Living with a Ventricular Assist Device), a lay navigator-led early palliative care intervention supporting LVAD recipients in achieving valued living. She also has an emerging interest in trajectories of life-space mobility and their relationship to valued living among rural older adults with heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Dr. Bechthold has received several honors recognizing her early career impact, including being named a Finalist for the 2025 American Heart Association Martha N. Hill New Investigator Award, and recipient of the 2024 UAB School of Nursing Jean A. Kelley Legacy Award, the 2023 HFSA Nursing New Investigators Research Award, a 2023 European Society of Cardiology Travel Grant, and the 2022 UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care Director’s Award.