Ross Joins the CVHS

Chris Ross, DVM, Ph.D., is the new associate dean for academic affairs at the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. Ross comes to OSU from Kansas State University where he was on faculty from 1990 to 2007.

He grew up in a small town in northwest Missouri and graduated high school at Columbia, Mo., in 1970. He studied at the University of Missouri (MU) for two years and then left to manage the family farm. In 1975, he returned to MU, earning a bachelor’s in agriculture in 1977 and a DVM in 1981.

Ross practiced veterinary medicine in Fulton, Mo., for four years and then attended graduate school at MU, where he earned a Ph.D. in physiology in 1990.

His graduate work focused on the general area of angiogenesis or the formation of new blood vessels during wound healing and tumor growth. Through various collaborations, he developed an interest in blood vessel responses to inflammatory disease and host response to infection.

Most recently, Ross has been working with a small antibiotic peptide that helps protect epithelial tissues from infection. In general, his research focuses on the host response to invasion or damage.

“Although my path to veterinary medicine was not direct and came pretty late,” he says, Ross believes he can have a significant, positive impact on his chosen profession.

“I have been very pleased to find that everyone I’ve met at OSU is excited about where the veterinary center is going. The faculty thinks and acts as a team and things are very well organized,” Ross says.

“The chance to participate in veterinary education at an excellent institution like OSU is what excites me most.”

Dr. Mike Finn is a clinical assistant professor of ophthalmology Finn, from Atwood, Kan., completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame. He received his DVM degree from Kansas State University and completed an internship at Auburn University and a residency at Purdue University, where he also earned a master’s degree.