Meet Dr. Ed Knight
ValueOptions® employs both local and national consumer and family leadership. ValueOptions® vice president for recovery and resiliency is Dr. Ed Knight. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology and is a nationally published researcher and educator, currently serving as an Adjunct Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University. He received his doctorate in Sociology from the New School for Social Research in New York in 1979.
Dr. Knight works with consumers and providers throughout the ValueOptions® service centers to help them create a recovery-oriented system. Dr. Knight is himself a mental health consumer, first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1969, and then with depression and anxiety disorder in 2002. He has experienced homelessness and was hospitalized a number of times, the last time in 1981. The turning point for Dr. Knight came when a young psychologist told him, "Don't give up your delusions of grandeur. Those are your goals."
Dr. Knight went on to become the founder the Mental Health Empowerment Project, Inc. and served as their executive director for 12 years. The project helped start over 600 self-help groups and nearly 35 self-help not-for-profits that provided consumer-driven mental health services. They included drop-in centers, peer counseling, housing, case management and mutual support.
Dr. Knight worked as a private consultant from 1997 to 2001. His customers were managed behavioral health organizations, behavioral health provider and consumer organizations, as well as county and state governments.
Dr. Knight is also involved in local and national research projects, and has published extensively. He works with the University of California at Los Angeles, Rand, National Research and Development Institutes and Boston University.