Dr. Knowlton is a trauma and critical care surgeon and NIH funded public health researcher whose focus is on improving access to and quality of care for trauma and other surgical patients. She obtained her medical degree at McGill University and completed her general surgery residency at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. During her residency, she obtained an M.P.H. at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and completed a research fellowship at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. She joined the faculty at Stanford University Medical Center as Assistant Professor of Surgery in early 2018, after completing the Stanford Surgical Critical Care fellowship. 

Dr. Knowlton’s research focuses on improving health equity, addressing barriers in access to care and reducing disparities among vulnerable surgical populations, including underinsured trauma patients. Dr. Knowlton’s work has been funded by the American College of Surgeons (the C. James Carrico Faculty Research Fellowship), the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD).  Dr. Knowlton was the inaugural Chair of the Associate Member Council of the AAST and is currently a member of the AAST Diversity and Inclusion and Healthcare Economics Committees. She also serves as the Associate Vice Chair of Research for the Stanford Department of Surgery.