Child Abuse Pediatrician at Center of Controversies in Three States Resurfaces at California Tribal Clinic
- Family Justice Resource Center
- 18 minutes ago
- 4 min read
A pediatrician whose child-abuse assessments have triggered controversy in three states has quietly become the sole medical provider and medical director at a Tribal health clinic in rural Northern California. Dr. Barbara L. Knox, whose child abuse work in Wisconsin, Alaska, and Florida has drawn significant scrutiny, now leads Anav Tribal Health Clinic. Her hiring has not been publicly announced, and she is not listed on the clinic’s website.
A transition-of-care letter, obtained this week by the Family Justice Resource Center from concerned parents, identifies Knox as the clinic’s pediatrician and medical director beginning September 30, 2025, following the departure of its only nurse practitioner. The same letter introduced another physician, Dr. Syed Mustafa, as a permanent provider, but sources say he has already left, leaving Knox as the only clinician on staff.
California Medical Board records show that Knox received her state medical license on November 12, 2025, more than a month after her listed start date. The patient letter highlights her medical training and more than 23 years of experience, but it omits her employment history from 2009 to 2025, years marked by investigations, disputed diagnoses, staff departures,and allegations of retaliatory behavior.
A 16-Year Pattern Across Three States
According to reporting by Wisconsin Watch, Anchorage Daily News, and First Coast News, Knox’s career across three states has been marked by a recurring set of concerns:
A substantial number of abuse diagnoses she issued or supported were later contradicted by courts, prosecutors, child welfare agencies, or independent medical specialists.
Families were separated for months or years before medical evidence unraveled the original allegations.
Staff members reported bullying, intimidation, or pressure to label medically complex cases as abuse.
Internal investigations documented serious concerns about her conduct and leadership.
In each instance, employers permitted Knox to resign without formal consequences, giving her the ability to pursue employment in another state. Available public records do not reflect disciplinary action by licensing authorities.
From Madison to Anchorage to Jacksonville, these issues recurred with striking consistency, even as Knox continued to move between institutions and states.
Wisconsin: Early Warning Signs
Knox rose to prominence at the University of Wisconsin’s Child Protection Program, eventually becoming Medical Director. Her opinions were widely relied upon in criminal prosecutions and child welfare decisions.
But reporting by Wisconsin Watch and partner outlets documented multiple cases in which her assessments were later rejected by court, agencies, and medical specialists when alternative medical explanations or accidental injuries were identified. In several cases, criminal charges were dismissed or defendants were acquitted, and families were reunited after months or even years of wrongful separation.
In 2019, the University of Wisconsin placed Knox on paid administrative leave while officials investigated concerns about her workplace behavior, including “unprofessional acts that may constitute retaliation against and/or intimidation of internal and external colleagues,” according to an internal letter later released under the state public records law. Knox subsequently resigned from her faculty and hospital positions.
Alaska: A Clinic in Collapse
Months later, Knox reemerged as Medical Director of Alaska CARES, the state’s flagship child abuse forensic clinic.
Within two years, the clinic’s entire medical staff, every provider except Knox, had resigned. Staff described a workplace marked by conflict, fear of retaliation, and pressure to support abuse findings in medically complex cases.
Providence Alaska Medical Center placed Knox on leave in late 2021 amid “increasing concerns” about the environment. She resigned in 2022.
Two Alaska families later filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that erroneous abuse diagnoses under Knox’s leadership triggered traumatic removals and invasive investigations.
Florida: Misconduct Substantiated
In 2022 Knox joined the University of Florida’s medical school in Jacksonville, working with the First Coast Child Protection Team.
By 2024, new reports of misconduct surfaced. Journalists from First Coast News and Wisconsin Watch detailed disputed abuse diagnoses involving infants and medically complex children in Florida and Georgia—cases in which other physicians or legal authorities later rejected Knox’s conclusions.
In October 2024, the University of Florida opened an HR investigation into Knox’s workpl
ace conduct. The findings were severe: investigators substantiated allegations that Knox bullied coworkers, created a hostile or “toxic” environment, neglected key responsibilities, and engaged in racist behavior toward staff and families of color.
Knox resigned, effective August 2025.
California: A Quiet Return, Far From Oversight
After leaving Florida, Knox launched a resume-style website featuring paid press releases distributed through paid wire services, presented as independent media coverage. She then quietly accepted a position at Anav Tribal Health Clinic, a small, isolated clinic in Fort Jones, California, that serves the Quartz Valley Indian Community, a federally recognized Tribe in Siskiyou County.
Knox is now the clinic’s only physician, caring for Native families—a population that, despite federal protections, continues to face child-removal rates nearly three times those of non-Native children—without the multilayered medical review structures typical of hospital-based child protection programs. In this setting, diagnostic authority is concentrated in a single provider. For a physician with a documented history of disputed conclusions and workplace investigations, the concentration of diagnostic authority in this setting carries extraordinary stakes for vulnerable families.