Source: UM-Dearborn
Teaira Ross
Teaira Ross
Working at Henry Ford Health System, Teaira Ross helps homeless patients find places to live, connects people in need with food resources and shares information on other service programs relating to health care, mental health and more with community members.
A patient resource coordinator and early intervention specialist for the Detroit-based hospital system, Ross blends advocacy, case management and patient education to help people with chronic conditions like HIV find what they need to improve their health and quality of life.
Ross, a sociology major who graduated this past spring, has wanted to do advocacy work since she was young. After all, she saw the impact it made for her. “Supportive people and services really helped to change my life and save me,” Ross says. “I know what it’s like to grow up poor in Detroit. My mother raised three girls by herself. I realized how important help is to address barriers from the time I was small. I wanted to put my cape on and save the world.”
To achieve that dream, Ross says she needed to go to college. “I just wasn’t sure how to do it at the time,” she says. She ultimately started at UM-Dearborn in her 30s. “I’ll forever be grateful for this university helping me get to where I am today,” she reflects. Before starting college, however, she had some challenges to face.
