Doug Nelson

Casebook PBC Board Member

Douglas Nelson is retired President and CEO of the Annie E Casey Foundation. He is one of the nation’s leading advocates for children and one of the country’s foremost experts on policies and community-based responses to improve the lives of at-risk children and their families. He assumed the presidency in 1990 and led AECF through one of the most remarkable and innovative transformations of a philanthropic organization — from a moderately-sized regional institution providing foster care services to disadvantaged children to one of the nation’s most influential and respected large foundations.

Mr. Nelson also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of East Baltimore Development, Inc.; a member of the Board of Directors of the Carter Center in Atlanta, GA; and former Chair of Living Cities: The National Community Development Initiative. Prior to that, he served as Chair of the New York City Special Advisory Panel on Child Welfare and as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation Center in New York City.

Among other recognitions, Mr. Nelson received an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in 2005 from Suffolk University in Boston, MA; the 2003 Whitney M. Young Award from the Greater Baltimore Urban League; and the 2002 Jane Addams Distinguished Leadership Award by the United Neighborhood Centers of America, Inc.

In addition to frequent lectures and addresses, Mr. Nelson has written widely on a range of domestic and social policy issues. His social history of the World War II relocation of Japanese Americans entitled Heart Mountain earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1976. Mr. Nelson maintains close ties with many from this experience and currently serves on the Board of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. His other published works include studies and essays on children and youth, aging, long-term care, and housing.