Dr. Renda Ross is an associate professor and currently serves as Capital University’s Social Work Program director. She joined the faculty at Capital University in 1999 and served as field director from 2001 to 2006.
Dr. Ross earned a Ph.D. in 1996 from The Ohio State University College of Human Ecology where she studied family science and family therapy, with equal emphasis in psychology. She earned her Master of Social Work degree in 1986 from OSU and a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984 from the Louisiana Tech University College of Human Ecology where she studied family science and child development.
She has presented at the national level in the area of adolescent development and family process. More recently her research interests have included understanding how Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity traits/symptoms relate to academic disengagement, and she directs Capital’s First Year Experience pilot project.
Dr. Ross has more than 20 years of experience working with families and individuals in a variety of clinical settings. She currently maintains a small private practice in downtown Dublin, Ohio where she works with couples, families and adolescents. She is committed to family health, validating diversity in families, encouraging functional family process, and using a strengths perspective. She has extensive family therapy training under the instruction of American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy supervisors.
Dr. Ross's work is consistent with social work values to approach practice with a person-in-environment perspective including micro-, mezzo- and macro- systems of influence. She encourages students to use a trans-disciplinary perspective, critical thinking and variant levels of analysis in generalist social work practice. She teaches effective problem solving, which conceptualizes stress, coping and adaptation in light of interpersonal and societal dynamics.