Dr. Gross earned six academic degrees and completed two post-doctoral fellowships. His degrees include a BS in finance and economics from University of Southern California (USC); an MBA with emphasis on private sector and non-profit sector from the USC Marshall School of Business; a JD from Loyola University School of Law; an MPA with focus on public policy and health administration from USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development; an MS in Health Care Administration/Quantitative Analysis from USC; and a PhD in Psychology/Public Policy from USC.  He completed two post-doctoral fellowships: the first was from National Institute of Health in Psychiatry and Law; and the second was in Forensic Psychiatry from the National Institute of Mental Health (Crime and Delinquency).

He began his academic career as an Instructor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at USC in 1972 under the mentorship of Seymour Pollack, MD at the USC Institute of Psychiatry and Law. Upon Dr. Pollack’s death in 1982, Dr. Gross assumed the role of Director of the Institute.  He was awarded tenure in 1984.  He held the position of Director of the Institute, with tenure, until his retirement in 2022. The Institute served as a post-doctoral training site in forensic psychiatry and psychology, attracting applicants from across the United States. The fellowship program was accredited by ACGME in 1997 and was the only accredited program west of the Mississippi at that time; since then, the program has trained hundreds of psychiatrists and psychologists to aid the justice system throughout the US.

Dr. Gross is a nationally recognized expert in the fields of behavioral science, law, and public policy to initiate legislative change. Dr. Gross has performed or supervised over 21,000 psychological or psychiatric legal evaluations and reports for the judicial system. He has made over 180 presentations at local, state and national meetings in the area of public policy, mental health and the interrelationship of law and psychiatry.  He has authored or co-authored 126 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 7 books and 28 book chapters, monographs and educational films, and authored or co-authored 32 white papers for the United States government agencies for purposed of national security.  Dr. Gross has been awarded 226 grants, contracts, and gift accounts as the Principal Investigator during his tenure at the University of Southern California. A major area of interest is interrelating the fields of behavioral science, law, and public policy to initiate legislative change in mental health law. Dr. Gross provided consultation for 22 local, state, and national agencies in the area of forensic psychiatry, ensuring the USC Institute of Psychiatry, Law and Behavioral Science would remain at the forefront of the field.

Since retiring from the University, Dr. Gross is now enjoying some free time and consulting part time