Professor of Psychiatry / SUNY Upstate Medical University
James L. Knoll, IV, M.D. Professor of Psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY, and Clinical Director of Central New York Psychiatric Center in Marcy NY. He has been SUNY Upstate’s Director of Forensic Psychiatry since 2006. Prior to moving to New York, he was the Director of Psychiatric Services for the entire New Hampshire State Prison system. He has served as an expert witness in cases of national prominence such as the “Cleveland Strangler” serial murder case of Anthony Sowell, and the “137 shots” Cleveland Police shooting case.
Dr. Knoll has researched the phenomenon of murder-suicide and has interviewed surviving members of the Jonestown Tragedy mass homicide-suicide. He has presented as part of the Sandy Hook Promise initiative after the Newtown Tragedy and published an Afterword in David Kaczynski’s autobiography which details his discovery that his brother was the Unabomber (Every Last Tie: The Story of the Unabomber and His Family). For the past decade he has performed forensic evaluations on students who have threatened to engage in violence such as school shootings. He has conducted research and published numerous articles about mass murder and was an invited consultant to the National Institute of Justice regarding mass shootings. He serves as the committee chair on threat assessment for the Onondaga County School Safety Task Force.
Dr. Knoll is Emeritus Editor-in-Chief of the Psychiatric Times ( psychiatrictimes.com ), one of the most widely read publications in the field of psychiatry, and a contributing editor for the Correctional Mental Health Report (civicresearchinstitute.com). He serves as director for the SUNY Upstate forensic psychiatry fellowship training program and lectures nationally and internationally.
He is an Affiliate Fellow of the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship (ICIAF) which serves to train and collaborate with law enforcement nationally and internationally, with regular meetings at the FBI National Academy (iciaf.org). He is teaching faculty for the annual American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) Forensic Psychiatry Review Course. He has authored over 150 publications in journals and book chapters.
