Born in Houston, Texas, Dr. Carolyn Ross spent her childhood in San Antonio where as the oldest of five children, she comes from a long line of physicians and healers.  Her mother’s father was a well-known physician in Bryan, Texas who opened his own hospital and nursing school.  His mother, Betty Love, was a Cherokee medicine woman.

She wanted to be a doctor since she was nine years old and has worked many summers and vacations in her grandfather’s office, going with him on house calls, helping him deliver babies and learning how to dispense medications in his office pharmacy.

Dr. Ross completed her undergraduate degree in Modern Foreign Languages at Purdue University and worked as a full-time mother of her two older sons before returning to school to complete her Pre-Med requirements.  She then went to the University of Michigan Medical School.  Dr. Ross’s practice experience after medical school helped fuel her interest in understanding what makes people heal as she saw that most of her patients’ medical problems were related to lifestyle habits and the stresses of modern living.  In searching for a better way to address these issues, Dr. Ross began to explore complementary and alternative therapies and the use of herbs and supplements for her patients.  She then completed a residency in Preventive Medicine at Loma Linda University and then set up practice in San Diego, California where she eventually opened three womens’ centers where she practiced primary care and office gynecology.  Her womens’ centers integrated the best of western medicine with complementary and alternative therapies such as yoga, acupuncture, chiropractic and nutrition counseling.  She developed and ran a weight management program that offered a holistic approach to treating obesity.  During that time, she also served as the medical director of The Rader Institute’s inpatient eating disorder program.

Dr Ross’s own personal health crisis and the diagnosis of her mother with Alzheimer’s led her on a journey to healing in which her perspective about medicine changed and her desire to focus on integrative medicine led her to the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine.  Dr. Ross completed a two-year fellowship in Integrative Medicine, studying with Dr. Andrew Weil.  Her path then led her to work as the head of the Eating Disorders Program and the Integrative Medicine Department at world-renowned inpatient hospital, Sierra Tucson where she pioneered the Integrative Medicine approach to eating disorders.  She currently works in private practice in Colorado and as a consultant for treatment centers across the country on eating disorders and integrative medicine.

Dr. Carolyn Coker Ross is a mother of three sons and has one granddaughter.  She is also a nationally known author, speaker and expert in the field of Eating Disorders and Integrative Medicine.   Her most recent book is “Healing Body, Mind and Spirit: an Integrative Medicine approach to the treatment of eating disorders.”  Her next book “The Overcoming Binge Eating Disorder and Compulsive Overeating Workbook” is due to be published in  2009.  Dr. Ross has also developed a line of supplements as a result of her research, which is designed to support the recovery of patients with eating disorders and obesity.

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