Will R. Ross, MD, MPH
Will R. Ross, MD ’84, MPH, is an associate professor of medicine and associate dean for diversity at Washington University School of Medicine. Ross is a highly respected nephrologist and an exceptional administrator. As a health care policy expert, he focuses on minority health care advocacy and resolving health care disparities.
Ross earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1980 and his medical degree from Washington University in 1984. He completed an internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt University and a renal fellowship at Washington University. He recently completed a master’s degree in public health at Saint Louis University. Ross joined the Washington University faculty in 1996 as an assistant professor in medicine and became an associate professor in 2008. Ross currently serves as a senior fellow at Washington University’s Center for Health Policy.
A longtime advocate of public health and health care for the medically underserved, he has produced educational materials concerning elimination of health care disparities, helped to open free local medical clinics, and has been instrumental in coordinating local access to health care for the underserved. He is a past president of the Mound City Medical Forum and is a charter member of the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, which promotes accessible health care for the medically underserved. He served as past chair of the Commission’s health literacy task force. He currently serves as board chairman for the Missouri Foundation for Health, where he also spearheaded its health literacy initiative. He was recently appointed to the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy. Ross is a founding member of the American Society of Minority Health and Transplant Professionals, after having served on the Surgeon General’s Task Force on Minority Organ Donation.
Ross has been recognized by the St. Louis Board of Education, the Human Development Corporation of St. Louis, and the Mound City Medical Association. Washington University has honored him with the Humanism in Medicine Award, the Robert and Gerry Virgil Ethic of Service Award, and induction into Alpha Omega Alpha. In 2005 he received the Distinguished Community Service in Medicine Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Missouri State Celebration Commission.
The Washington University Medical Center Alumni Association is pleased to present Dr. Ross with its Alumni/Faculty Award.