Michael
D. Knox, Ph.D.
Chair
and Founder
US
Peace Memorial Foundation, Inc.
Michael D. Knox grew up on Grosse
Ile, Michigan and earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of
Michigan in 1974. A Distinguished
Professor Emeritus at the University of South Florida (USF) and licensed
clinical psychologist, he is currently Chair of the US Peace Memorial Foundation.
Dr.
Knox joined the USF faculty in 1986 as Chair of the Department of Community Mental
Health. When he retired from USF in
2011 he held appointments as Distinguished
Professor of Mental Health Law and Policy, Distinguished
Professor of Medicine, Distinguished
Professor of Global Health, and joint appointments in Psychology and Aging
Studies. Spanning over 35 years,
his academic career has focused on issues of peace, ethics, disease prevention,
death, and 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. 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 of the Florida/Caribbean
AIDS Education and Training Center (1991) and the USF Center for HIV Education
and Research (1988) www.usfcenter.org. He was Director of both Centers until retirement
in 2011. Prior to joining the USF
faculty, he was Director of the Western Tidewater Mental Health Center and on
the faculty of Eastern Virginia Medical School.
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 Òbuilding a culture of peaceÓ and Òhonoring peace leadershipÓ.
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, ÒWorld Peace: A First StepÓ was published in the Journal of Sociology
& Social Welfare, June 2011 and is available at www.uspeacememorial.org/WorldPeace.pdf. ÒA Cultural Shift toward Peace: The Need
for a National SymbolÓ was published in the journal Peace and Conflict.
Read this essay at www.uspeacememorial.org/article.htm. In 2009, ÒHonoring Peace and Antiwar
Behavior: The US Peace RegistryÓ was published in Peace Psychology. Read
it at www.uspeacememorial.org/article2.htm.
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, foundation, 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 2006-2011, US Peace Memorial Foundation, Inc.