BIO

Dr. Will Ross is associate dean for diversity and principal officer for community partnerships at Washington University School of Medicine, where he is a professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology. He completed medical school at Washington University School of Medicine, an internal medicine residency at Vanderbilt University, and a renal fellowship at Washington University. He completed a masters of science in epidemiology at the Saint Louis University School of Public Health.  Over the past two decades, he has recruited and developed a diverse workforce of medical students, residents and faculty while promoting health equity locally, nationally and globally through collaborations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and public health officials in Ethiopia, Haiti, and South Africa.  As a public health and health policy expert, Dr. Ross has focused on systems integration and conceptual frameworks to reduce health-care disparities.  He is a co-founder of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Center for Diversity and Cultural Competence and served on the task force that created the Washington University Institute for Public Health, while serving as co-director of the new MD/MPH program.  He is vice chair of the Washington University Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, and has been instrumental in redesigning local access to health care for the underserved. He was recently elected to the Group on Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee for the American Association of Medical Colleges, where he focuses on strategic planning to advance faculty diversity and inclusion.  Last year, Dr. Ross participated in a dynamic, thoughtful and wide-ranging discussion on racism in kidney care and social determinants of health, challenges building a diverse pipeline of future nephrologists, race-based diagnostic measures and barriers to career advancement for the American Society of Nephrology.  He has received numerous honors and awards for his work and contributions.