Jennifer Nelson

Jennifer Nelson, MPH, is a Senior Digital Health Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, DC. She spearheads the Health, Nutrition, and Population (HNP) strategy for digital health transformation and leads IDB’s Digital Health Team, providing strategic and technical guidance to help public sector partners leverage digital tools to enhance quality, access, and equity in healthcare and public health across Latin America and the Caribbean. Jennifer also directs the Pan-American Highway for Digital Health Initiative (PH4H), a collaborative effort among IDB, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and regional governments, aimed at advancing population health through technology. Under her leadership, PH4H enables secure access to health data and services throughout the region, fosters sustainable investment in digital public goods, and promotes system interoperability and cross-border information exchange to strengthen health systems. 

From 2010 to 2018, Jennifer served as the Learning, Innovation, and Technology Officer for the IDB’s Salud Mesoamerica Initiative’s Coordination Unit in Panama. Her career includes research and project work in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States with organizations such as Case Western Reserve University, PAHO, and the Cleveland Department of Public Health. Jennifer holds a Master of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Public Health, and Spanish from Case Western Reserve University, and has completed all coursework for a master’s degree in Health Informatics from Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. For more on her work, visit the IDB’s Blogs or explore her publications on Google Scholar.