Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Through teaching and mentorship, I try to plant as many seeds as possible each day.  But, even before I entered academia, I worked to train people in medical record coding and compliance on an informal basis and came to see such education as an opportunity for people to improve their lives.  That realization was formalized with an adjunct position at Delgado Community College's Health Information Management program in 1998.  While most of my career has been spent working in healthcare, I re-entered academia in 2010 at the University of Tennessee Department of Public Health in their Master's program.  I am grateful to continue my academic career at King University whose mission of teaching adults aligns well with my own.

While in New Orleans, I attended the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and earned a Master's in Public Health in 1998.  In 2004, I received a fellowship to attend the University of Texas at Dallas and earned a Master's of Science in Applied Sociology and a Ph.D. in Public Affairs.

I am beginning my work with students in the Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration program based at the Knoxville campus.  I am starting with teaching Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Healthcare Policy, and Population Health.  I look for to the start of this work.

My research interests include:

• Health systems research including the effect of nonclinical decisions on medical outcomes.
• Healthcare disparities created by policy decisions and societal constraints.
• The effects of state and federal policy decisions on the accessibility of primary care.
• The effects of protocol-based medical education on the critical thinking skills of clinicians.

My service interests include working to improve the lives of the people in our community and am currently seeking volunteer opportunities that will allow me to assist with that goal.  

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-Reviewed Journals

Knight, M. (2005).  Mental Illness and the Mental Health Care Delivery System in Texas.  Journal of Social Science Research. Fall.  Published on-line.

Knight, M. and D. Comer-HaGans (2012). Domestic Partner Benefits. Public Personnel Management 41(3): 493-504.

Erwin, P., M. Knight, J. Graham, A. Kalos, M. Glenn, R. Rayman, E. Read and S. Welch (2013). Data Synthesis in Community Health Assessment: Practical Examples From the Field. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice 19(5): 468-474.

Knight, M.  The Effect of Hospital Organizational Characteristics on Postoperative Complications.  Journal of Patient Safety 9(4):198-202. 

Knight, M, A. Kershenbaum, M. Buchanan, J. Ridely, and P. Erwin (2014).  The Effects of the State of Tennessee Immunization Policy Change of 2011 - 2012 on Vaccination Uptake in East Tennessee.  Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research 3(1): Article 4.  American Journal of Public Health: December 2014, Vol. 104, No. 12, pp. e39-e39. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.10412e39.2

Knight, M, A. Kershenbaum, M. Buchanan, J. Ridley, P. Erwin.  The Effects of the Changes in Section 317 Rules for Administration of Federally Purchased Vaccines.  Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research 3(2): Article 7.  American Journal of Public Health: December 2014, Vol. 104, No. 12, pp. e42-e42. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.10412e42.2

Kershenbaum, A., M. Knight, M. Buchanan, J. Ridley, P. Erwin.  A Case Study of Cross-Jurisdiction Resource Sharing: The Merger of Two Tuberculosis Clinics in East Tennessee. Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research. 3(5): Article 4.

Terry, Paul D, Knight, M.A.,  R. Bollig, R. E. Heidel, P. Miller, M. A. Quinn, B. Daley, M. Goldman. Overreliance on Standardized Protocols: A Pilot Study of Surgical Residents and Fellows. American Surgeon. Volume 83, Number 5, May 2017, pp. e159-e161(3)

PRESENTATIONS

Scientific Meetings

Knight, M and Comer-HaGans, D.  Domestic Partner Benefits: Reaching Parity in Health Care Coverage for Non-Traditional Families.  Oral presentation.  Southwestern Sociological Association Conference, 2008, Las Vegas, NV.

Guerrero-Soto, A, Knight, M, Comer-HaGans, D.  Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Prenatal Care Utilization and Birth Outcomes among Texas Women.  Oral presentation.  Southwestern Sociological Association Conference, 2008, Las Vegas, NV.

Knight, M, Comer-HaGans, D, McArthur, P, and Brown, K.  Access to Post-Primary Care among the Uninsured of Knox County.  Poster Session.  Xavier Conference on Health Disparities, 2012, New Orleans, LA.

Myers, CR, Knight, M; Amos, K, Hamilton, C, and Grubaugh, J.  Level of Community Engagement in Academic Health Departments.  Oral presentation.  Keeneland Conference, 2013, Lexington, KY.                    

Knight, M, Erwin, P, Kershenbaum, A, Buchanan, M, Ridley, J.  The Effects of the FY 2012 Free Vaccination Policy Change for East Tennessee Vaccination Uptake.  Poster Session.  Tennessee Public Health Association (TPHA) Annual Conference, 2013, Franklin, TN.

Petty, G., Knight, M.  Measuring Work Ethic to Respond to Public Health Workforce Development Needs.  Poster Session.  American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Conference.  2013, Boston, MA.

Knight, M, Erwin, P, Kershenbaum, A, Buchanan, M, Ridley, J.  The Effects of the Changes in Section 317 Rules for Administration of federally Purchased Vaccines.  Oral Presentation.  Keeneland Conference. 2014, Lexington, KY.

Invited Seminars

Knight, M. (2011) The Effects of the Affordable Care Act on the Population of Knox County.  Invited discussion panel at Sequoyah Hills Presbyterian Church, October 16.

Knight, M. (2012) Coding for Billing.  Invited seminar series at Knox County Health Department, February – March.

Knight, M. (2012) Coding for Immunizations.  Invited seminar at Knox County Health Department, April 8.

P. Terry & Knight, M. Meta-analysis on Colorectal Cancer Screening.