Dr. Nelson was born and raised in the Twin Cities. He attended the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Biology with a research focus in neuroscience and brain stimulation. During and post-college, he spent 9 years doing software development in manufacturing and the financial services industry. In 2006 he decided to go back to school and subsequently completed a medical degree at the University of Minnesota in 2011. He then completed a general psychiatry residency there along with a clinical research fellowship in neuromodulation. After graduation, he spent a year as a fulltime faculty member and as Executive Director of the transcranial magnetic stimulation program at the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis VA Medical Center. His clinical focus was on treatment-resistant depression and mental health management in epilepsy and other complex neurological disorders. His research focused on non-surgical brain stimulation in depression, brain injury, and schizophrenia.
Dr. Nelson serves as the Chief Medical Information Officer and is a consultant for the Center for Neurotherapeutics at PrairieCare which is focused on ground-breaking technologies used in the treatment of complex disorders such as Major Depressive Disorder.