Prof. LaRon E. Nelson is the Independence Foundation Associate Professor of Nursing and Associate Dean of Global Health & Equity. He also serves on the Yale Institute of Global Health’s Leadership Advisory Committee. He is also a scientist with MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. He is the inaugural holder of the Ontario HIV Treatment Network Research Chair in Implementation Science with Black Communities in Canada.

Prof. Nelson is an elected Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. He has been honored by professional nursing organizations, including the Excellence in HIV Prevention Award by the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care and the President’s Trailblazer Award by the National Black Nurses Association. Prof Nelson was the first nurse to be named as one of Canada’s Rising Stars in Global Health for his groundbreaking research in Ghana. 

His work in research and implementation science spans multiple countries. He co-founded the Central and West Africa Implementation Science Alliance (CAWISA)—a collaboration of implementation scientists and implementing agencies from Cameroon, Congo, Ghana and Nigeria aimed to improve HIV related outcomes among adolescents the region. He is also leading implementation science efforts to reduce racial disparities in HIV incidence, treatment and viral suppression among African, Caribbean, and Black communities in Canada. His work in the US focuses on the use of multi-level (e.g., social/structural, behavioral, and clinical) interventions to reduce HIV infections among Black MSM.

Prof. Nelson’s research has been funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institute of Mental Health, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Canadian Institute for Health Research, Grand Challenges Canada and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Adolescent Health and an Associate Editor for the Global Health section of BMC Public Health. He also served a Guest Editor for the Journal of Urban Health special issue on HIV and Black MSM.