Dr. Nagel for NH
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About Dave

Who I Am

In short, I am a husband, father, physician, advocate, legislator, and Ironman triathlete.

I have lived in New Hampshire with my wife and two sons for the past 37 years and Gilmanton for the past 27.   Having moved here from a small town in Upstate New York and having worked for the Indian Health Service in Sitka, Alaska, I had fully embraced “Live Free or Die” long before I got here.  What I love about New Hampshire is that it is so easy to get involved and make a difference.  That is what I have done my whole career.

I have always been inspired by my mother.  She was physically very disabled, but mentally very able.   She never let her limitations get in her way.  She had a finger and she had phone, and using the two, she could make a difference.   She was always there to help others in need, something I have come to call “kitchen table advocacy.”

Armed with that lesson, I came to New Hampshire determined to make a difference.  In my medical practice of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, I have served the physically, mentally, and psychologically disabled first serving as medical director of Easter Seals, then at Concord Orthopaedics.  My focus at first was geriatric rehabilitation and brain injury.

I quickly came to see that pain was a part of all the disabilities I encountered, and I became aware of how we, as a culture, stigmatize those who suffer, adding unnecessarily to the burden these patients faced.  I also learned of the disparities that exist in how we treat those who suffer; people discriminated against not just because of their pain and their inability, but also because of their skin color, their sex, their sexual orientation.  I was determined to change the way pain and addiction are perceived, judged, and treated.

I learned that the world of the clinic was artificial.   I felt a need to get out into the community to make a difference.   In doing so, I created my own model of advocacy which I entitled the “John the Baptist Model,” a voice crying in the wilderness.  I learned that too often those in power did not want to hear what I felt a need to say, but I never let that stop me.
General Election: November 8, 2022
​Please Vote!!!
  • Home
  • About Dave
  • Beliefs
  • Accomplishments
  • Priorities
  • The Missing Chapter
  • Contact