New Director of Behavioral Medicine Joins Student Health Services
Margaret Ross, former administrative director of health education at MIT, is the new director of behavioral medicine at Boston University’s Student Health Services.
Ross, who joined BU this summer, brings to the position 29 years of related experience working with students. Previously, she was the associate director of the adult outpatient department at the Cambridge Health Alliance, where she specialized in women’s mental health and eating disorders.
“Eating disorders is a field that I’ve known and worked in for many decades,” says Ross. “It is one of my goals at BU to establish a team that includes medical staff, mental health staff, and nutritionists to ensure safety and stabilization for students struggling with these problems.”
As the director of behavioral medicine, Ross sees students and works closely with SHS director David McBride to facilitate outreach into the community.
In recent months, she says, Student Health Services has gone through many changes, including the recruitment of new clinicians, an additional crisis counselor, and a coordinator for alcohol and other drug programming.
“We have started a new program called Clinician in the College, which affiliates one of our clinicians with each of the major colleges,” Ross says.
With her experience at MIT, as well as having been a fellow at Harvard University’s Health Services, Ross is hoping for increased collaboration among Boston-area schools.
“I like being on this side of the river,” she says. “I hope that we will continue to work closely with Harvard, MIT, and other institutions to bring the best practices to BU and vice versa.”
Jessica Leving can be reached at jleving@bu.edu.