Grantee follows discredited child-abuse expert from Wisconsin to Alaska to Florida, raising new questions

Ezekiel Acker, 2, looks concerned as his mother, Emily Acker, cries while recounting what it was like to be separated from her children, including 1-year-old Izabel, at their home on Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska. Emily and her husband Justin were subjected to multiple child abuse investigations — all dropped due to lack of evidence. The Ackers and another Alaska couple sued former University of Wisconsin Dr. Barbara Knox shortly after she resigned as head of Alaska’s forensic child-abuse clinic amid allegations of workplace bullying and misdiagnoses. Photo taken Jan. 13, 2022. (Emily Mesner / Anchorage Daily News)

Earlier this year, Alaska’s top child-abuse expert resigned after Wisconsin Watch uncovered serious questions about her work in both Wisconsin and Alaska. With one of the Fund’s new follow-up grants, Wisconsin Watch has continued to track Dr. Barbara Knox, who is now working for University of Florida. Reporter Hope Karnopp waded through more than 150 pages of records from the Florida Board of Medicine and discovered discrepancies between Knox’s documented work history and her answers on the questionnaire to obtain a Florida medical license.