Johnson & Johnson
Crestview, FL
Robert “Skip” Nelson, M.D., M.Div. Ph.D. is currently Executive Director, Pediatric Drug Development in the Child Health Innovation Leadership Department (CHILD) at Johnson & Johnson (J&J). In this role, he consults on the pediatric clinical development of medicines across several Therapeutic Areas in J&J Innovative Medicines. Dr. Nelson also serves as co-Chair of the J&J Pregnancy and Lactation Advisory Group and a member of the J&J Bioethics Committee.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson in January 2018, Dr. Nelson was Deputy Director and Senior Pediatric Ethicist in the Office of Pediatric Therapeutics at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, consulting throughout FDA on clinical and ethical issues arising in the development of FDA-regulated products for children and serving as a standing member of the internal FDA Pediatric Review Committee. Dr. Nelson was a member and then Chair of the FDA Pediatric Advisory Committee (PAC) prior to joining FDA in 2006, and currently serves as the Industry Representative on the PAC.
Dr. Nelson is a member of the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) E11A Working Group which developed a recent guideline on the use of extrapolation in pediatric drug development plans. Dr. Nelson recently served as a member of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP). Dr. Nelson was a member and Chair of the American Academic of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics (1994-2001), and a member of the Subcommittee on Research Involving Children of SACHRP (2003-2006), the Committee on Research Involving Children of the Institute of Medicine (2002 - 2004), and the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on the State of Therapeutic Products for Infants, Children, and Youth (2012 - 2014). Dr. Nelson has lectured widely nationally and internationally on pediatric research ethics issues, including presentations to the Institute of Medicine, SACHRP, the National Preparedness and Response Science Board and the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. He is the author or co-author of over 150 publications.
Dr. Nelson spent 20 years in the academic practice of pediatric critical care medicine, most recently as Professor of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In his research, Dr. Nelson used qualitative and quantitative empirical methods to study issues in pediatric research ethics, including risk perception, voluntary choice, and child and parental decision-making, funded by a development award from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and competitively awarded grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Center for Research Resources, National Institute for Nursing Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Cancer Institute, National Science Foundation and The Greenwall Foundation. In addition, he served as the chair of an institutional review board for ten years (first at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and then at CHOP).
After receiving his M.D. degree from Yale University, Dr. Nelson trained in pediatrics (Massachusetts General Hospital), neonatology and pediatric critical care (University of California, San Francisco). He has a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D. in The Study of Religion from Harvard University, specializing in ethics.
Saturday, November 8, 2025
3:30 PM - 4:45 PM ET