Dr. Nakagawa is a prominent neurologist and neurointensivist known for his expertise in stroke and neurocritical care. He leads the Neuroscience Institute at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawai’i and is also the Division Chief of Neurology and Professor of Medicine at University of Hawai’i John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Dr. Nakagawa shares with us that his childhood experience and family history defined his core values and aspirational goals to become a physician leader to help address the unmet needs of the rural communities who suffer due to healthcare inequities. His late grandfather was raised in a rural village in Shizuoka, Japan, who became the first scholar in that village to enter medical school. He devoted his early career as a physician-scientist in academia conducting hemophilia research and later enlisted to station in China as a military physician during World War II. Dr. Nakagawa's late grandmother, who was from Hiroshima, fortuitously escaped the tragedy of the atomic bomb because she had volunteered to serve abroad as a military nurse where she met his late grandfather in service. After the war, the two decided to return to his grandfather's roots to serve his community, starting the only clinic in the small rural town of Futamata near his home village in Shizuoka. Their clinic was attached to their primary residence where their children (Dr. Nakagawa's mother and uncle) grew up and later became MD-PhD physicians themselves. Over a decade after his grandfather's death, Dr. Nakagawa's mother, an academic pediatrician and a single mother of two, returned to Futamata to run the family clinic to meet the pediatric needs of the community.

Growing up in a house that was physically attached to the clinic, Dr. Nakagawa firsthand observed his mother's tireless dedication as the only pediatrician in town to serve their community. This childhood experience became the core value of Dr. Nakagawa's mission to not only serve the rural community but to become a "developer of the field" by building an innovative and comprehensive academic and clinical program that is tailored to the community.

Co-founding the Brain Health Applied Research Institute (B+HARI), he integrates neuroscience with lifestyle interventions to promote brain health and recovery. This innovative work emphasizes non-medical treatments, such as art, design, and music, to enhance neuroplasticity and rehabilitate brain function after injury. Dr. Nakagawa's contributions have advanced both clinical and broader health interventions internationally, highlighting his commitment to transforming brain health research into practical applications.