Claire A. Nelson
Dr. Claire Nelson is Chief Ideation Leader of The Futures Forum, a research and education practice specializing in bringing the power of strategic foresight, and the discipline of sustainability engineering to challenges facing organizations and communities. Her speaking engagements have included: Association of Blacks in Energy; ASME; World Bank; Women in Research Engineering Symposium; Black Engineer of the Year Conference; Salzburg Seminar; World Steel; and the US Air Force. She also provides foresight and sustainability consulting to organizations such as: Development Bank of Jamaica; Spectrum Management Authority; Caribbean Maritime University; and Petroleum Management Authority. Listed on the Top 50 Female Futurists in the world on Forbes, Dr. Nelson serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Human Futures Magazine, the Journal of Futures Studies, and the World Futures Review, and is an active member of both the Association of Professional Futurists and the World Futures Studies Federation. Dr. Nelson is Co-Founder of the Caribbean Space Society and is currently working to establish a Global Community of Practice for SPACE for the SDGs. Dr. Nelson also serves as a Fellow of the TECHCAST Global foresight knowledge network. Dr. Nelson’s community service has also included serving on the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship Review Committee and Sustainability Division of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Before establishing The Futures Forum, Dr. Nelson held a variety of positions at the Inter-American Development Bank, over a thirty-year career which spanned strategic portfolio development; program identification and management, and institutional assessments and technical feasibility studies across a variety of sectors including: public sector modernization, private sector development, community development, and trade development. There she was a thought leader in promoting Strategic Foresight in development and also pioneered the topic of development with equity in Latin America. A social entrepreneur, Dr. Nelson is the Founding President of the Institute of Caribbean Studies, the leading Caribbean American Diaspora organization (since 1993) and recognized as the Architect of the Campaign for June as National Caribbean American Heritage Month. Dr. Nelson, who is an award-winning writer and storyteller, holds a Bachelors and Masters in Industrial Engineering from the SUNY at Buffalo (1979) and Purdue University (1981) respectively, and a Doctorate in Engineering Management from the George Washington University (1990). She is distinguished as the first Jamaican woman to earn a Doctorate in an Engineering discipline and a White House Champion of Change.
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