Portrait of Dr. Will Ross to be Unveiled at Department of Medicine Grand Rounds 2022 Eduardo Slatopolsky Lecture

The distinguished career of Willie Ray Ross, MD, MPH, Alumni Endowed Professor of Medicine, Department of Nephrology, and Associate Dean for Diversity at Washington University School of Medicine, will be celebrated with the unveiling of Ross’ portrait at the upcoming Eduardo Slatopolsky Lecture in Renal and Electrolyte Disorders, held at the Department of Medicine’s Medical Grand Rounds on December 15, 2022.

The presentation of the oil painting will take place immediately after the featured lecture by Robert S. Hoover, MD, FASN, FAHA, Section Chief of Nephrology & Hypertension, Deming Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, who will speak on “Stories Along the Path: A Tangential Scientific and Career Journey.”  The event will take place in the Connor Auditorium in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center at 8:00 am. 

Dr. Ross is renowned at WashU for his excellence in patient care, teaching, research, and for his dedication to the medically underserved.  For more than two decades, he has focused on minority healthcare advocacy and the elimination of healthcare disparities.  Ross is co-founder of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Center for Diversity and Cultural Competence, which works to ensure that all patients have equal access to high-quality health care.  He served on the task force that created the Washington University Institute for Public Health, and is co-director of the MD/MPH program.

I am extremely humbled to be memorialized with this portrait. I have endeavored to ensure every human is treated with dignity and respect – I did not expect such accolades in return.

Dr. Will Ross

Adding to Ross’ many accomplishments is his most recent award, the American College of Physicians (ACP) Oscar E. Edwards Memorial Award for Volunteerism and Community Service (2022-2023), bestowed for Ross’s impact on the community, the profession of medicine, and medical science.  Ross says he was “surprised and honored” to receive the national ACP award, which was established in 1998 in honor of Dr. Oscar E. Edwards, former Governor and Regent of the College.

“We in the Division of Nephrology are so proud of Dr. Ross, who has made so many important contributions to our school, our patients, the region, and nationally,” says Benjamin Humphreys, MD, PhD, Joseph Friedman Professor of Renal Diseases in Medicine and Chief, Division of Nephrology.  “His commitment to advancing equity and longstanding efforts to reduce disparities serves as an inspiring example that we all try to follow.”

Learn more about Ross’ passion for community health in the feature article in WashU Nephrology’s Spring 2021 Newsletter, and please read the excellent in-depth personal profile of Ross in “Leading with empathy:  The transformative influence of a doctor who hasn’t forgotten his past” by Kristina Sauerwein, published in the Winter 2017/2018 issue of WashU’s Outlook Magazine.

On Twitter, follow @rosswr, @bhoov4, @HumphreysLab, @WUDeptMedicine, and @ACPinternists, and keep up with our Division @WUNephrology.

For more information about the DOM Medicine Grand Rounds and the Eduardo Slatopolsky Lecture in Renal and Electrolytes see here.