Kristen Knight, PA

I went to PA school at Baylor College of Medicine and have since spent the majority of my professional career in the Emergency Room of a level 1 trauma center, where I have truly seen it all.  The trenches of the ER built me into a strong clinician, but I have always felt the pull to spend more time (too much time, by ER standards!) with each individual patient.  The deeper I get into my career, the more I value the gift of time. Time to have meaningful conversations with patients, time to develop long-term relationships, time to individualize each patient’s treatment options.  The direct primary care model at Paradigm allows for this gift of time to truly become a reality, and I am so thankful for it.

I grew up in a household full of medical professionals, so it seems my future was written in the stars. My mother was a labor and delivery nurse and my father a bone-marrow transplant oncologist.  I have two younger sisters whom I adore – another physician assistant and a nurse practitioner!  We grew up living where my Dad’s career took us (Boston – Seattle – DFW) and have been in TX since 1994.  I went to undergrad in Williamsburg, VA and graduated from The College of William & Mary with a biology degree and and wide open future.  I elected to spend the next year volunteering in the Dominican Republic, exposing me to medical care in a 3rd world country. Wow. That formative year ignited my passion for medical mission work, especially in Hispanic countries, and I have since returned on several additional mission trips to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Guatemala.  I love the opportunity to speak Spanish, the family-oriented communities, and the culture of thankfulness despite having so little.