Michael D. Knox, Ph.D.
Chairman & CEO
US Peace Memorial Foundation, Inc.
Michael D. Knox grew up in Grosse
Ile, Michigan and earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of
Michigan in 1974. A licensed
clinical psychologist, he joined the University of South Florida (USF) faculty
in 1986 as Chair of the Department of Community Mental Health. He is currently a Distinguished
Professor of Mental Health Law and Policy, as well as a Distinguished Professor
of Medicine, Global Health, Psychology, and Aging Studies.
Spanning
over 35 years, his academic career has focused on issues of peace, ethics,
disease prevention, death, and community mental health. He has been elected to a variety of
leadership positions nationwide and authored over 125 scholarly presentations
and publications, including several books and book chapters. Dr. Knox has been responsible for more
than $50 million in grants to USF.
He has served as President of the USF faculty senate and Chair of the
Florida Advisory Council of Faculty Senates. He is founder and director of the Florida/Caribbean AIDS
Education and Training Center (1991) and the USF Center for HIV Education and
Research (1988) www.usfcenter.org.
His long-standing peace and
antiwar activities began in 1965 in opposition to the war in Vietnam. As a delegate to the 20th National
Student Congress, he introduced a successful resolution to hold an antiwar
demonstration in August of 1967 in front of the White House. In 1970, Knox co-founded a draft
counseling center and, in 1971, he blew the whistle on classified weapon
systems research at the University of Michigan. Since then, he has continued to engage in speeches, debates,
interviews and other actions regarding peace. He is an invited speaker nationwide on the topics of
Òrecognizing peace leadershipÓ and Òbuilding a culture of peaceÓ.
In 2005, Dr. Knox founded the US
Peace Memorial Foundation which seeks to demonstrate that advocating for
peaceful solutions to international problems is an honorable and socially
acceptable activity. This
501(c)(3) public charity will build the US Peace Memorial in Washington DC to
honor Americans who have opposed war(s) and/or proposed peaceful alternatives
to war. He is editor of the US
Peace Registry www.uspeacememorial.org/registry.htm,
a publication that recognizes role models and documents a broad range of
antiwar behavior.
His biography is included in the
latest editions of Who's Who in the World,
Who's Who in America, Who's Who in
Science and Engineering, and Who's Who
in American Education. Professor Knox is a Fellow of the
American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological
Science. Fellow status in both
organizations is granted Òin recognition of outstanding and distinguished
contributions to the science and profession of psychology.Ó In 2005 he was inducted into Sigma Xi,
the international honor society of research scientists and engineers. In 1999 he served as a Visiting Scholar
at the University of Oxford in England and in 2003 he represented USF at the
dedication of a new university in India.
Dr. Knox was awarded the 2007
Anthony J. Marsella Prize for the Psychology of Peace and Social Justice at the
115th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association. The award is presented annually by Psychologists
for Social Responsibility and recognized him for more than four decades of
outstanding contributions to peace and humanitarian assistance. His work promotes cultural change,
raising our awareness of past efforts towards peace and increasing future
opportunities to challenge the promotion of war.
Most recently, ÒA Cultural Shift
toward Peace: The Need for a National SymbolÓ was published in the scholarly
journal Peace and Conflict. Read this short essay at www.uspeacememorial.org/article. In 2009, ÒHonoring Peace and Anti-war
Behavior: The US Peace RegistryÓ was published in Peace Psychology. Read it at www.uspeacememorial.org/article2.
Dr. Knox currently lives in the
Tampa Bay region. John, his eldest
son, is a computer and electrical engineer working in Austin. His son James is a civil engineer
working in Orlando.
IMPORTANT NOTE: None of the
views expressed by Dr. Knox or this website represent any university or other
entity.
US Peace Memorial Foundation,
Inc. is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charity.
The IRS has determined that
donations are tax deductible.
Copyright 2006-2010, US Peace Memorial Foundation, Inc.