The Rutgers University Board of Governors has appointed John A. Nelson (PhD, CNS, CPNP, FAAN) to the François-Xavier Bagnoud Chair in Community and Family-Centered Care at the School of Nursing within Rutgers Health.

Nelson, a clinical associate professor at the School of Nursing, is nationally recognized for his leadership in advancing comprehensive care for those living with, affected by, or at risk of HIV.

He is the first to serve in the newly renamed professorship, formerly known as the François-Xavier Bagnoud Chair in Community Pediatric Nursing. The board changed the title to emphasize the university’s commitment to the betterment of the community it serves. The renaming of the professorship and Nelson’s appointment were finalized on June 20.

“I am thrilled that Dr. John Nelson has been appointed to this important professorship,” said Linda Flynn, dean and professor at the School of Nursing. “John works tirelessly to improve the health and well-being of our nation’s most vulnerable residents and families. He is very deserving of this prestigious honor.”

Nelson is the director of national training at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center, which opened in 1987 in Newark to improve the health of vulnerable members of the community. He is program director of the federally funded AIDS Education and Training Center National Coordinating Resource Center and principal investigator of a $12.5 million, multiyear interventional study aimed at improving STD screening and treatment among people living with or at risk for HIV. The study identified important steps to reducing the spread of STDs and the Health Resources and Services Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau, which funded the study, designated it a Special Project of National Significance. Nelson is also a co-principal investigator, representing Rutgers, of a National Institutes of Health-funded project focused on ending the HIV epidemic with equity.

A clinical nurse specialist and certified pediatric nurse practitioner, Nelson has provided health care to adolescents and young adults in various settings, including a community-based youth program, mobile health care vans, and high school clinics. Nelson has served on the editorial advisory board of the Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health and many expert panels. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing—one of the profession’s highest distinctions—and has received the Excellence in Research Award from the New Jersey Health Foundation.

Nelson earned his master of science degree in nursing from Yale University and his doctor of philosophy degree in nursing from New York University.