Dr. Nancy Ross began her term as Vice-Principal Research on August 1, 2021, and she is also a faculty member in the Department of Public Health Sciences (School of Medicine, Queen’s Health Sciences), where she is a recognized expert in population health.

Originally from Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Dr. Ross obtained her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Geography from Queen’s University and received her PhD in Geography from McMaster University.

She spent four years working at Statistics Canada’s headquarters in Ottawa in research positions that included a postdoctoral affiliation with the Population Health Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. She joined McGill’s faculty in 2001 and earned a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator career award in 2002. She subsequently held multiple career awards with the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS).  Dr. Ross was also the CIHR Tier I Canada Research Chair in the Geo-Social Determinants of Health.

Dr. Ross served as Associate Vice-Principal (Research) at McGill from 2016-2021, where she led and directed initiatives and projects that advance McGill’s research enterprise across multiple disciplines. Dr. Ross has served as a longstanding reviewer for national and international funding agencies and is the past Scientific Editor-in-Chief of Health Reports, Canada’s flagship population health journal.

In 2023, she was named the recipient of the Melinda Meade Distinguished Scholarship Award in Health and Medical Geography, which recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the advancements of health and/or medical geography research.