- Executive Vice President
- Chief Clinical Officer
- Chief Medical Officer, UPMC International
- Chair, Urological Surgery
Joel Nelson, M.D., is executive vice president and chief clinical officer of UPMC, supporting UPMC’s quality enhancement initiatives, service line development and growth initiatives across UPMC’s regions. Nelson, who has also been the Frederic N. Schwentker Professor and chair of the Department of Urology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, since 1999, has grown the department from 5 to 40 full-time faculty members, with a 12-fold increase in clinical volumes and research funding. With more than 250 scientific publications, he is a member of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, the Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons and was a trustee of the American Board of Urology. In 2021, Nelson was appointed senior vice president and chief medical officer of UPMC International. Previously, he served as senior medical director of the University of Pittsburgh Physicians and chief clinical officer of the Health Services Division at UPMC.