Dr. Claire Nelson is the first Black female member of the Board of the World Futures Studies Federation
and Editor of their flagship magazine Human Futures, she is listed among the Top 50 Female Futurists in
the world on Forbes and also the author of SMART Futures For A Flourishing World, one of two black
authors invited to contribute to the series
the architect of the successful Campaign to declare June as National Caribbean American Heritage Month
in the U.S. and the visionary behind such flagship events as the White House Caribbean American
Community Briefings; the Annual Legislative Forum on Capitol Hill; Invest Caribbean; and the
Caribbean American Heritage Awards.
Dr. Claire A. Nelson is also the Ideation Leader of The Futures Forum, which employs the disciplines of
strategic foresight and sustainability engineering to effect sustainable design, planning and management
of projects and policies across a variety of sectors.
Dr. Nelson has enjoyed over thirty years career in international development, and was the trailblazer for
placing the topic of social exclusion due to race and ethnicity on the agenda of the Washington
international finance institutions. She pioneered the IDB’s work on development with equity and as a
result of her pioneering leadership, was honored with the prestigious Ortiz Mena Award at the
Inter-American Development Bank in 2010.
Dr. Nelson holds a Bachelors and Masters in Industrial Engineering from the State University of New
York at Buffalo and Purdue University, and a Doctorate in Engineering Management from the George
Washington University, and is an inductee in several Engineering Honor Societies. She was named an
Outstanding Alumni of Purdue University School of Industrial Engineering in 2013. A winner of several
awards and honors, Dr. Nelson has received several commendations for leadership in the US
Congressional Record and was named a WHITE HOUSE CHAMPION OF CHANGE in 2012.