Santiago Nicholls is the Regional Advisor of Neglected Infectious Diseases for the Pan American Health Organization. from the National University of Colombia School of Medicine. 

Nicholls has been in his current role since March 2016, where he manages the technical cooperation to PAHO Member States in order to strengthen their national programs for the elimination of Neglected Infectious Diseases and achieve the public health goals established in Resolution CD55.R9 , “Plan of Action for the Elimination of Neglected Infectious Diseases and Post-elimination Actions 2016-2022”, as well as the in the “Disease Elimination Initiative: a policy for an integrated sustainable approach to communicable diseases in the Americas”, approved in 2019, which sets the goals of eliminating, by 2030, more than 30 communicable diseases, including some of the NID. PAHO´s targets are aligned with those of the WHO NTD Roadmap 2021-2030 and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. 

He began working with PAHO in November 2008, and has served as Regional Adviser for Leprosy and Sub-regional for Neglected Diseases of PAHO based in Brasilia, Brazil. Prior to this, he worked from 1984 to 2008 as a researcher at the National Institute of Health (INS), and as a lecturer on medical parasitology at the National University of Colombia. 

Nicholls is a physician from the National University of Colombia School of Medicine, and holds an M.Sc. degree in Medical Parasitology from University of London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Royal College of Physicians of London.