Claire Nelson

Dr. Claire Nelson is 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. Under her leadership, the Futures Forum has designed and curated the first Forum on the Future of the Caribbean Sea, a Forum on the Future of Jamaica; a Forum on Impact Investment and Social Stock Exchange for Jamaica; and a Forum on the Role of Private Sector in Achieving the SDGs.

A sought-after speaker on the Future, Nelson’s engagements have included: Association of Blacks in Energy; ASME; Women in Research Engineering Symposium; World Steel; Women of Color in Pharmacy, Bellagio Consultation on Wellbeing; and the US Air Force. She also provides consulting services to organizations such as: Development Bank of Jamaica; Spectrum Management Authority; and Guardian Insurance.

Before establishing The Futures Forum, Dr. Nelson held a variety of positions at the Inter-American Development Bank, over a thirty-year career where she pioneered the Bank’s work on development with equity for people of African descent, and led strategic portfolio development, institutional assessments and technical feasibility studies across a variety of sectors including: public sector modernization, private sector development and community development e.g. fisherfolk resettlement.

The Founding President of the Institute of Caribbean Studies, she is the architect of the Caribbean American Legislative Forum on Capitol Hill and White House Briefings; Invest Caribbean Agribusiness Forum; and the Caribbean Sea Fan Online Festival in honor of UN World Ocean Day.

She has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Futures Studies, the Board of the Sustainability Division of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, and currently serves as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Caribbean Maritime University, where she is assisting in developing a Graduate Level Certificate in Sustainability Leadership.

Dr. Nelson, an award-winning writer and storyteller, holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering and a Doctorate in Engineering Management from the George Washington University. The first Jamaican woman to earn a Doctorate in an Engineering discipline, Nelson was named one of Top 100 Women Futurists in the “Twitterverse” and is recognized as a White House Champion of Change.