Valeen Tippetts Avery was born on December 22, 1936 in Great Falls, Montana. After earning her bachelor of arts in foreign languages from Rocky Mountain College in 1959, she moved east, working various jobs in New York City, North Carolina, and Germany. Avery returned to the west in 1972 to produce and direct a weekly educational television program at KOAI TV in Flagstaff, Arizona. After six years with KOAI, she returned to school, earning her master of arts in history from Northern Arizona University in 1981. Avery went on to get her PhD at NAU in 1983, specializing in American social and intellectual history. NAU promptly hired her in 1984 as an assistant professor and the director for the Center of Colorado Plateau Studies. She earned tenure and a promotion to associate professor in 1990, and she gave up her role at the Center of Colorado Plateau Studies two years later. Avery became a full professor in 1998, and she worked in that capacity until her retirement in 2005. She was married to Charles C. Avery in 1961, with whom she had four children before their divorce in 1986. In 1996 she married colleague and English professor Bryan Short. Avery died unexpectedly on April 7, 2006, in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Avery was a prolific writer, authoring two books and numerous articles and book reviews. She is perhaps best known for her work on Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, a controversial book she co-authored with Linda Newell, first published in 1984. From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet, a biography of David H. Smith, was published in 1999. Both won the Evans Award for Best Western Biography. She was also a respected leader and teacher, serving as president of the Mormon History Association in 1987 and exciting countless students with her enthusiastic teaching style. In 2001, she was the Homecoming Dedicatee at NAU, chosen by a vote of students, staff and faculty.