Douglas Ross was born on June 15, 1942. He attended Mumford High School in Detroit, graduating in 1960. He received a B.A. in history from the University of Michigan (1965), pursued graduate studies in economics at the University of Michigan (1965-1966), and the London School of Economics (1964), and received a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University (1972).
He has held numerous positions in government, public interest, and business, working for various politicians and political activist groups. In 1967, Ross created and co-directed the Volunteer Placement Corps, an organization funded by New Detroit, Inc., to place inner-city high school graduates in colleges, job training programs, and jobs. In 1973, along with University of Michigan classmate Barbara Grossman, Ross founded the Michigan Citizens Lobby, a non-profit citizens group which has grown to over 100,000 members. Under his leadership, the Lobby was the moving force in the passage of the Generic Prescription Act, the Auto Repair Protection Act, and the repeal of the sales tax on food and medicine. He also served briefly as executive director of Michigan Common Cause in 1975.
In 1978, Ross left the Michigan Citizens Lobby to run for the State Senate from his home district in Oak Park. He was successful and remained in the State Senate until his unsuccessful bid for a seat in U.S. Congress in 1982.
Ross continued his political career by serving as Director of Commerce from 1984-1989 under Governor Blanchard, where he was instrumental in reshaping Michigan's economic strategy, worked to make Michigan more attractive to corporations for investment, and re-organized the department to function like a business. He left to serve as president of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, an economic-growth consulting firm.
Ross founded Michigan Future in 1991 and served as the president. It is a bipartisan group of business and community leaders working to instigate a change and revitalization in Michigan's economy. Through his economic work, Ross became involved with president-elect Bill Clinton. Ross was appointed Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training Administration (ETA) in the U.S. Department of Labor in 1993. During his tenure, the ETA underwent a structural re-organization and focused on improving worker training programs to lower unemployment. He left the post in 1995.
Doug Ross had begun working as a visiting lecturer at the University of Michigan in 1991. He resumed his teaching when he returned from Washington in 1995. He ran for Michigan Governor in 1998, but lost in the Democratic Primaries to Geoffrey Fieger. Ross then focused his energy on founding a charter school in Detroit. He opened the University Preparatory Academy in 2000 to provide better education for urban youth. The school consists of a middle school and a high school and provides small classes and a customized education. Ross continues to serve as principal of the school.
