Robert K. Ross, MD

Dr. Robert K. Ross is the former president and chief executive officer for The California Endowment, a foundation committed to addressing the health needs of all Californians. 

During his tenure, the Endowment provided advocacy and funded efforts in support of “Health For All” across the state, expanding health coverage for undocumented residents, farmworkers, and “Dreamers,” strengthening diversity in the health workforce, advancing wellness-driven school climate reforms, improving health advocacy for young men and young women of color, and providing leadership for health-oriented criminal justice reform.

A long-time friend of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, Dr. Ross and the Endowment have generously supported our work.

“In our early years as a foundation as we began to try and execute on our mission of improving the health of underserved populations, we ran into several difficulties and challenges. Among them was that we just didn't have good data and good information about what was happening, but in particular in rural and underserved communities. The data sets were weak, sometimes non-existent. We would get those complaints from community organizations on the ground trying to solve those problems that we just needed better data and a better handle on the severity and the significance of the problems in those communities," said Ross. 

"I think it's fair to say that the work that the Center has done on health insurance alone made a substantial contribution to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The Center has made major contributions to our understanding of the link between soda and childhood obesity. The Center has made major contributions to our understanding of the barriers to care in vulnerable populations and vulnerable communities. And the Center has made extraordinary contributions to our understanding of the powerful link between poverty and health status. I can’t think of too many organizations that have contributed more to our basic understanding of health in California and across the nation.”

Prior to The California Endowment, Dr. Ross was the director of the Health and Human Services Agency in San Diego County and  commissioner of public health in the City of Philadelphia. He also served as a founding board member of Covered California, the entity responsible for the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in California. 

More recently, Dr. Ross served as chair of the Los Angeles County Task Force on Alternatives to Incarceration, developing a strategic roadmap for L.A. County to reform the criminal justice system in support of health-focused strategies to reduce incarceration. In 2021, he worked in partnership with the Board of Directors to raise $300 million for a first-ever social bond by philanthropy in California, designed to invest in systems-change and movement-building support of grassroots activists in social justice.