Eric Nielson is the Director of Information Technology Policy for the County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA).

From 2018 to 2026, Eric served as County Executive Liaison to the CalHEERS project. In this role, he led CWDA’s efforts to ensure the county voice was represented in project governance and advocated for changes to improve CalHEERS support for Medi-Cal and to enhance the interface between CalHEERS and CalSAWS. More recently, Eric also represented CWDA in the state’s Data Exchange Framework (DxF) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), where he helped shape what will be needed to meaningfully and responsibly incorporate human services data elements into the exchange.

Before joining CWDA, Eric served as the Director of Community Social Services for Lassen County for five years. As County Director, Eric served on the CWDA Executive Committee as the CWDA representative for the 20 Small Counties and as a member of the JPA Board of the C-IV Statewide Automated Welfare System. His human services career began in 2005 as an Eligibility Worker. Eric has a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology from Brigham Young University.