JEFF KNIGHT

Jeff Knight
JEFF KNIGHT
V I C E P R E S I D E N T, P R O G R A M M A N A G E M E N T A N D C L I N I C A L O P E R AT I O N S O N Y X P H A R M A C E U T I C A L S
About 16 years into a seemingly successful career in the drug development
field, Jeff Knight decided to return to school and become a nurse. Knight,
who has an MPH in biostatistics and epidemiology from the University of
Oklahoma, had been working in clinical research for several pharmaceutical
companies when he got “this feeling that something was missing.”
Knight decided he wanted a nursing education. So he went back to school
to get a BSN degree at the University of Kansas School of Nursing. As a
student, he worked for about nine months as a nursing associate in the
Medical and Transplant ICU at The University of Kansas Hospital. He was
hired as an RN in the same unit after graduating with honors in nursing
in 2011. It was there he would make another career turnaround decision.
“Being at the bedside with many oncology patients and their families
actually inspired me to go into research again,” Knight says. “I saw what
a difference new cancer therapies could make, not only for an individual
patient but for entire populations suffering from a disease. I could see the
clear need to develop new and innovative treatments for cancer patients.
So I returned to drug development, specifically oncology clinical research.”
Barb Geiger, a mentor to Knight in the late 1990s when he was starting
out in the biopharmaceutical industry, understands how someone could
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benefit from being an RN in this industry, especially if that someone
is Knight.
“Jeff is one of those Renaissance-type folks,” says Geiger, who directs the
Global Oncology Division for Clinipace Worldwide Inc., and is a graduate
of the KU School of Nursing. “He is very much a leader at his company
and is very involved in philanthropy. He’s in the pharmaceutical
development side of things, yet he brings a real personal side. That’s
where being a nurse comes in – they’re people-oriented, always putting
the patient first.”
Knight landed at Onyx Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco, where he is
currently serving as vice president of program management and clinical
operations, overseeing aspects of the company’s global oncology clinical
development programs, including the management of more than 40
clinical operations professionals.
“My nursing education has given me such a different perspective,” he
says. “It allows me to be a better advocate for patients as we design clinical
trials. I also think it’s given me more clinical credibility with physicians
and other health care providers.”