Height: 5 feet 8 inches
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Strawberry Blonde
Distinguishing Marks: Avery has a scar on her chin which she sustained trying to pull her father off of her mother in a domestic dispute.
Father: James Winston Stuart [Incarcerated- Life Sentence, 2nd Degree Murder]
Mother: Juliette Marie Brooks-Stuart [Deceased]
Aunt: Nora Brooks [Homemaker]
Personality:
Avery is the typical workaholic and classic "Mother Hen" who's known for going that extra mile when it comes to helping the people and causes she cares about. She readily admits to being an over-achiever and perfectionist, but in that regard she considers herself a work in progress.
She wears more of her heart on her sleeve than she'd care to admit, and because of that, she doesn’t enjoy getting inside the minds of criminal offenders. She prefers what she considers the more “human” side of forensic psychology: expert testimony, competency evaluations, and victimology. Although she has shown some talent for profiling and will do it if required, she’d much rather use her clinical skills to help those who are impacted by crime.
She has less patience for rank and bureaucracy and prefers to think of the people she works with as colleagues rather than her superiors or subordinates. Her friends would describe her as sweet, hardworking and dedicated, and many are often surprised by her sarcastic nature and competitive edge.
Personal History:
Avery’s desire to alleviate the psychological suffering of others and her passion for victims’ issues was originally ignited the evening she witnessed her father push her mother down a flight of stairs. She was five. The only child born to James, a successful advertising executive, and Juliette, a well respected real estate agent, Avery understood from an early age that her parents’ troubles were to stay a secret, or more precisely, as much of a secret as domestic violence could be in the suburbs of Seattle.
Though they weren’t rich by any means, Avery lived what her parents considered a privileged life in the house with a pool in the upper middle class neighborhood of Sunset Hills. Although her family’s status in the community didn’t make them exempt from the scrutiny of the authorities or social services, it did seem to grant them more opportunities to handle matters more discretely than others.
Instead of stints in foster care, Avery was permitted to stay with relatives. Instead of lengthy jail stays, her father was permitted more chances to complete batterers’ intervention classes. Weeks and sometimes months would go by without incident until the cycle would start again. Injunctions were filed and dropped, and her father would leave and return. This dance would occur so often that Avery began to gain a sixth sense of when her father was going to lash out and when a “vacation” with relatives was imminent.
As a consequence of her chaotic upbringing, Avery became much more comfortable studying about people than being around people. Although she was naturally outgoing and concerned for the well-being of others, time and again, her efforts to convince her mother to leave her father for good fell on deaf ears. Her sensitivity to her mother’s plight only seemed to cause her more pain, so she did her best to pretend she didn’t care, but it was a futile effort.
When a social worker finally gave her mother an ultimatum - leave your husband or lose your daughter - it devastated and then angered sixteen year old Avery to learn her mother had chosen to stay with her father. Avery was permanently adopted by her aunt, Nora Brooks, and though by all accounts, things got better for her and she might have set her sights on her own dreams, Avery never stopped trying to make sense of people like her parents, if only to avoid having to face the emotional turmoil of not knowing.
Avery thrived in school and began to re-discover the outgoing and warm nature she hadn’t been given a chance to get to know as a child. Instead of using her talents in reading people to predict her father’s next explosion, she could use them to help others address problems and be a loyal friend capable of getting close to others in ways she hadn’t been before. Avery refused to have anything to do with her father, but had begun reaching out as much as she could to her mother, who seemed to have been so devastated after losing her parental rights that she appeared to have mustered the courage to leave her father.
No one was surprised when Avery decided to major in Psychology at the University of Washington, or when, after graduating summa cum laude, she decided to seek a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. The semester she was to graduate, however, her plans came to a screeching halt. In the middle of the night, she received a phone call that would change the direction of her life completely: An officer from the Seattle Police Department informed her that her father had beaten her mother to death.
To this day, Avery doesn’t recall much from the ensuing years; only that from that point on, she devoted every spare moment she had to understanding the psychological impact of crime on survivors, the application of psychology to the criminal justice system, and the psychological profiles of violent offenders. She became a tireless advocate for victims’ rights, and was relieved but also grief-stricken when her only remaining biological parent was sentenced to life in prison.
Unwilling to accept that her mother’s death was the end of a chapter in her life, Avery completed her Master’s degree and went on to complete her doctorate in Clinical Psychology with specializations in Forensic Psychology and Trauma Psychology. She was determined to counsel survivors of trauma, particularly survivors of violent crime.
She first took a job with the King County Sheriff's Office’s Victim Assistance Center, an office dedicated to helping victims of violent crime receive counseling and legal services. Avery loved the challenging work and found it to be much more rewarding than she ever thought possible. Her efforts got the attention of local community leaders, who encouraged her to take a job as the Counseling Services Director for Seattle’s largest Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Center, Safe Horizons. Avery became a dedicated crusader for victims' rights and funding for victims' services and compensation.
Her position at the crisis center only allowed her to do so much, and Avery longed to do her part to make changes on a larger scale. By that time, she was also looking to get away from home, as it held a number of painful memories. Her opportunity came when she was asked to work with a Starfleet security officer on a case involving a Starfleet victim. She initially clashed with him and all of the bureaucracy he brought with him, but she found herself curious about Starfleet and exploring the world doing what she loved. After a Starfleet recruiter encouraged her to apply “just to see what happened,” she did so, and no one was more surprised than Avery to find she’d been accepted to Officer Candidate School, a 12 week program.
2371-2375 University of Washington [Bachelor of Arts in Psychology]
2375-2378 Seattle University [Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology]
2378-2381 University of Washington [Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology, specialization in Forensic Psychology and Trauma Psychology]
Service Record: (Including Starfleet Academy)
OCS was at first hell on earth for the independent, authority-resistant Avery. She was older than all of her peers and most couldn’t relate to a woman who hadn’t gone the Starfleet Academy route, let alone the Starfleet Medical route. At many times, she contemplated quitting, but the recruiter’s lure of perhaps one day working for SCIS doing the job she loved on a grander scale kept her going, and she eventually graduated with distinction and an Ensign’s commission.
Avery had been warned she would have to cut her teeth in Starfleet in a few “regular postings,” which she took in stride. She served her first tour as a staff counselor on the USS Discovery. By then, she was used to being older than her peers, and although she was still learning the ropes in Starfleet, her peers respected her clinical experience and common sense approach to working as a counselor. Two years later, she left the Discovery for the USS Olympus and was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade, where she became the Assistant Chief Counselor to a larger crew.
While Avery enjoyed the opportunity to find her passion for helping crew members deal with a variety of problems, she never lost sight of her original dream to work with SCIS doing what she did best. She was thrilled to learn of the opportunity aboard the USS Mississippi, and even more touched when her commanding officer gave her blessing.
She is looking forward to serving the SCIS and wearing all the hats required of its Chief Counselor.
Promotion History:
| 2381-2381 |  |
Officer Candidate | (C-5), | Starfleet Academy | |
| 2381-2383 |  |
Counselor | (O-1), | USS Discovery | NCC-81316 |
| 2383-2385 |  |
Assistant Chief Counselor | (O-2), | USS Olympus | NCC-64620 |
| 2385-2386 | |
Chief Counselor | (O-2), | USS Mississippi | NCC-80006 |
| 2386-Present | |
Chief Counselor | (O-2), | USS Mississippi | NCC-80006 |
