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US Peace Memorial Foundation |
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Michael D. Knox, Ph.D.
Chair and Founder, US Peace Memorial Foundation
Author: ENDING U.S. WARS by Honoring Americans Who Work for Peace
Michael
D. Knox grew up on Grosse Ile, Michigan, and earned his Ph.D. in psychology
from the University of Michigan in 1974. Dr. Knox is Emeritus Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and
Policy; Distinguished Professor, Department of Internal Medicine; and Affiliate Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Health at
the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida. He is currently
Chair of the US Peace Memorial Foundation and Editor of
the US Peace Registry.
Dr. Knox joined the USF faculty in 1986 as Chair of the
Department of Community Mental Health and has held faculty appointments as
Distinguished Professor of Mental Health Law and Policy, Medicine, and Global
Health, with joint appointments in Psychology and Aging Studies. For 50
years, his academic career has focused on peace, ethics, disease prevention,
death, and mental health issues. He was elected to various leadership
positions nationwide and authored over 125 scholarly publications, including HIV and Community Mental Healthcare, The Johns
Hopkins University Press. Knox is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association “in
recognition of outstanding and distinguished contributions to the science and
profession of psychology.” He was inducted into Sigma Xi, the international
honor society of research scientists and engineers.
Knox
was responsible for more than $50 million in grants to USF. He founded and
directed the Florida/Caribbean
AIDS Education and Training Center, was a Visiting
Scholar at the University of Oxford in England, and
represented USF at the dedication of a new university in Pune, India. He also
served as President of the USF Faculty Senate and Chair of the Florida Advisory
Council of Faculty Senates. For decades his biography was included in Who’s
Who in the World and Who’s Who in America. Before joining
the USF faculty, he was Director of the Western Tidewater Mental Health Center
and on the faculty of Eastern Virginia Medical School. In 2012, he retired his
license as a clinical psychologist to volunteer his full time and focus to antiwar
efforts.
His
long-standing peace and antiwar activities began in 1965 in opposition to the
war against Vietnam. As a delegate to the 20th National Student Congress,
he introduced a successful resolution to hold an antiwar demonstration in 1967
in front of the White House. In 1970, Knox co-founded a draft counseling
center, and in 1971 he blew the whistle on prohibited classified research at the University of Michigan. He provided evidence that university researchers were
perfecting weapon systems used by the military to kill. Since then, he has continued to engage in speeches, writing, protests, interviews, and other actions advocating
for peace. He is an invited speaker nationwide on the topics of “building
a culture of peace” and “honoring peace leadership.”
In
2005, Knox founded the US Peace Memorial Foundation. He
directs its nationwide effort to recognize hundreds of Americans’ antiwar/peace
actions by publishing the US Peace Registry, awarding the annual US Peace Prize, and eventually building a national monument - the US Peace Memorial - in Washington, DC. Knox says, “these
projects help move us toward a culture of peace as we honor thoughtful and
courageous Americans who have taken a public stand against one or more U.S.
wars or who have devoted their time, energy, and other resources to finding
peaceful solutions to international conflicts. We celebrate these role
models to inspire other Americans to speak out against war and work for peace.”
In
2022, Professor Knox received the Ralph K. White Lifetime Achievement
Award from
the Peace Psychology Division, American Psychological Association, for his “theoretical
and applied research which has led to new directions and applications for the
field of peace studies.” He was awarded the 2007 Anthony
J. Marsella Prize for the Psychology of Peace and
Social Justice “for more than four decades of
outstanding contributions to peace and humanitarian assistance.”
He is the
author of many peace-related articles including: “A Cultural Shift toward Peace: The
Need for a National Symbol,” Peace and Conflict,
2009; “Honoring Peace and Antiwar Behavior: The US Peace Registry,” Peace Psychology, 2009; “World Peace: A First Step,” Journal of Sociology &
Social Welfare, 2011; “US Peace Registry: From
psychologists to comedians,” The Peace
Psychologist, 2019; “It’s time to memorialize peace in
our public spaces,” Beyond Nuclear
International, 2019; “As Monuments to War
Generals Come Down, Let’s Replace Them with Monuments to Peace,” CounterPunch, 2020; “Militarism and
COVID-19,” CounterPunch, 2020; “After Nagasaki, The U.S.
Did Not Choose Peace,” CounterPunch, 2020; “American
Pop Culture Feeds the War on Peace,” Truthout, 2021; “Imagine a Culture of Peace,” CounterPunch,
2021; and “Let’s create a memorial to peace, not war,” OpEd, Tampa
Bay Times, 2021.
Knox is the
author of the book ENDING U.S. WARS by Honoring Americans Who Work for Peace, published in 2021. His work advocates cultural change, raising our awareness
of efforts towards peace and increasing future opportunities to challenge the
promotion of war.
You can
read more about the antiwar/peace activities of Michael Knox in the US Peace Registry and on Wikipedia. Dr. Knox currently lives in the
Tampa Bay area. John, his eldest son, is a computer and electrical
engineer working in Minneapolis. His son James is a civil/structural
engineer working in Orlando.
NOTE: The ideas expressed on
this website are the views of the Foundation or Michael Knox and do not
represent the views of any university.
US Peace Memorial Foundation is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charity.
Donations
to the Foundation are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
Florida
registration #: CH20094. A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL
INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE FLORIDA DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY
CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY
ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.
Copyright 2005-2022, US Peace Memorial Foundation, Inc.