UF Health Jacksonville pediatrician, Dr. Barbara Knox, is facing staff accusations of bullying coworkers, violating patient privacy and making racist remarks.
In June 2022, UF Health Jacksonville hired Knox to serve as a physician at the First Coast Child Protection Team, which treats children suspected of facing abuse.
Knox’s hiring at UF raised eyebrows given her controversy-marred professional history. In both Wisconsin and Alaska, the doctor faced complaints about workplace misconduct and misdiagnoses while serving in similar roles related to child abuse. Ultimately, she left both states amid investigations and lawsuits into her conduct.
Three staff members and one former staff member at First Coast Child Protection Team, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution, shared accounts of Knox’s behavior.
New complaints
One employee, a longtime child welfare worker, said issues with Knox began around January 2024 when the doctor became chief of UF Health Jacksonville’s division of child protection and forensic pediatrics.
“She was targeting a lot of people… that had discussed her previous positions in Wisconsin and Alaska,” the welfare worker said. “She very quickly became highly interested in running them off.”
Knox asked employees to report on colleagues who the doctor viewed as a threat, instructing them to find any information that could potentially justify termination, according to the source.
This behavior became especially threatening when Dr. Mark Hudak, UF department of pediatrics chair, visited the CPT office to inform employees that he “personally vetted Dr. Knox” and that “anybody who’s speaking about her is subject to termination,” the welfare worker said.
One CPT employee recounted several instances in which Knox used her authority in the office for personal ends, including having employees drive her children places, insisting child abuse cases had to be scheduled around a 5K race and offering employees promotions in exchange for information about employees who opposed Knox.
“You don’t bring anything up to Dr. Knox; you’re afraid to get fired,” the CPT employee said. “You don’t say anything to her unless you want to look for another job.”
A second CPT employee said she had experienced similar interactions with Knox.
“Only a few weeks after being employed there, I was summoned to her office privately, multiple times, with her requesting me to talk negatively and talk poorly about my supervisor so she had a reason to get them out of the office so she could kind of curate her own management,” she said. “She would practically back me into a corner.”
Those supervisors have since resigned due to the intimidation and pressure Knox placed upon them, she added.
Knox has also commented on employees’ skin color. The second CPT employee, who is mixed race, said Knox once asked her, “Why are you getting so dark?”
According to the first CPT employee, Knox complained that the receptionist for CPT’s Tallahassee office, a Black woman, looked “ghetto” due to having long, decorated fingernails.
In her account, Knox also wanted a case built against the Tallahassee receptionist and described her as “lazy” and someone who “looks like one of our clientele.”
The second CPT employee also said Knox had instructed her not to call her for any cases coming in past 10 p.m. A doctor is required to complete a patient examination before further medical actions can take place. The CPT employee received a call shortly after the 10 p.m. curfew was instigated about a child who was thrown head-first into a wall.
“Dr. Knox forbid me from calling her, so she’s now putting patients’ safety in jeopardy, because that kid should have gone to the hospital,” the CPT employee said.
The second CPT employee also said Knox’s conduct during sexual assault exams was inappropriate.
A mother brought her child in for an exam but said, due to her own experience of sexual assault, she could not watch. Instead, she would look away while remaining in the room for emotional support. The CPT employee relayed the request to Knox, who ignored it.
“Dr. Knox spread the child’s legs open in front of the mother… unclothed and put the child in the mother’s lap and started doing the swab,” the employee said. “The mom was just sitting there with tears down her face.”
Knox would treat families of color differently than white families, according to all three employees.
“We have African American, Hispanic, Muslim families that come in, and… she will go ahead and verify a report against them [over the smallest of issues], say it’s child abuse, and put the family in terrible, terrible situations,” one employee said.
When the child of a white doctor arrived to the clinic with gonorrhea — which is highly indicative of sexual abuse — Knox decided not to verify the case and claimed the child contracted gonorrhea from unwashed hands, the employee said.
Over 20 former CPT employees claimed to have quit over Knox’s conduct, according to both current and former employees.
One former employee who resigned described Knox’s behavior as “constant berating.”
“She would scream and yell and tell me what a terrible person I was,” the former employee, who worked under Knox in Florida, said.
Ultimately, the employee said the abuse broke her down to the point she had to resign.
UF public records revealed employees have also filed complaints to the Florida Office of Inspector General.
An anonymous complainant stated “[Knox] steps outside the guidelines of child welfare protocols, making inappropriate and unprofessional comments to colleagues and other agencies,” and she had stolen others’ work to create “presentations or published work about cases she was not directly associated with.”
On March 7, another complainant reported to UF’s Human Resources Department that Knox jumped to conclusions about a child’s injuries, labeling them as indications of abuse without examining the child’s full medical history.
“She took a small set of data and decided on a story of abuse without bothering to zoom out and investigate all possible reasons,” the report said.
According to the complainant, the child had a medical condition which provided a non-abuse cause of the child’s injuries.
“[Knox’s] bias on abuse leads her to find it where it doesn’t truly exist,” the complainant wrote.
A troubled history
The complaints workers at CPT have brought against Knox closely reflect those raised by her past employees in Wisconsin and Alaska.
In 2019, Knox left her position leading the University of Wisconsin’s Child Protection Program after the university placed her on paid leave while investigating complaints that she had bullied colleagues. In the letter UW sent to Knox notifying her of her paid leave status, the university explained that part of its decision was due to concerns about “unprofessional acts that may constitute retaliation against and/or intimidation of internal and external colleagues.”
One of Knox’s UW colleagues, Dr. Michael Stier, said he felt Knox had pressured him to make inaccurate abuse diagnoses, according to an article by the Wisconsin Watch. Wisconsin families filed lawsuits against Knox after her medical opinions caused them to lose custody of their children and, in some cases, even serve time in jail.
In Alaska, Knox led Alaska CARES, a child abuse clinic servicing the state. Investigations into Knox’s conduct there found that the clinic's entire medical staff had either quit or been fired in the two years Knox had worked there and staffers had complained once again of inaccurate medical diagnoses.
What’s next?
Neither Knox nor Hudak responded to requests for comment via email and phone call, though UF Health Jacksonville media relations manager Dan Leveton confirmed they received both. Leveton instructed that all communications related to Knox should come through the university via UF spokesperson Steve Orlando.
In an email statement, Orlando said Knox was hired due to her expertise and “positive contributions on behalf of children.”
“Dr. Knox is a key part of the faculty, and since her arrival her background and understanding in the field have enhanced our program and have made the community a safer place for children and their families,” Orlando wrote. As for allegations of Knox’s misconduct, he added, “the university does not comment on personnel matters.”
Several current and former employees confirmed that UF has launched an internal investigation, though with seemingly little results.
According to a former employee, one of UF’s investigators privately suggested that “it’s time to go public.”
University involvement has not inspired confidence among CPT employees concerned with Knox’s behavior.
“We do feel like the university has been negligent and nobody will step up to the plate [to address Knox’s behavior],” a welfare worker said. “She’s gotta go.”
Contact Avery Parker at aparker@alligator.org. Follow him on X @AveryParke98398.
Avery Parker is a third-year English and History major covering university affairs for The Alligator. Outside of reporting, Avery spends his time doting on his cats, reading, and listening to music by the Manwolves.
