Thomas A. Nakagawa, M.D., FAAP, FCCM, is a board certified pediatric critical care specialist.

He is the Associate Medical Director for Honorbridge Organ Donation Services in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dr. Nakagawa is a retired Professor of Pediatrics from The University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville.  His previous academic and clinical appointments include: Eastern Virginia Medical School, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. He was a Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Wake Forest and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital where he also served as the Division Chief, Medical Director for Pediatric Critical Care, and Medical Director for Respiratory Care.

Dr. Nakagawa is a national and international consultant for issues pertaining to pediatric organ and tissue donation and determination of circulatory and neurologic death. He is actively involved with work in the area of organ and tissue donation, neurologic and circulatory determination of death, end-of-life care, and ethical issues. Dr. Nakagawa has served on high-level national committees including the Secretary of Health of Health and Human Services, Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation (ACOT), the UNOS/OPTN Pediatric Transplant committee, and was co-chair for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance donor management taskforce committee. He was national faculty and co-chair for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Collaboratives sponsored by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA), and chaired four National Pediatric Organ Donation Summits in the US. He has recently served on the Board of Directors for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance as the representative and liaison for the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Nakagawa has authored more than 140 peer reviewed papers, book chapters, editorials, and abstracts. He has published pediatric donor management and dosing guidelines utilized by organ procurement organizations nationally. Dr. Nakagawa authored the 2011 updated guidelines for the determination of brain death in infants and children from the Society of Critical Care Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Child Neurology Society (CNS). He has been a consultant to the American Academy of Pediatrics for the revision of the pediatric organ donation and transplantation policy statement and is the senior author on the revised 2023 policy statement. He served on the Board of Directors for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance as the representative and liaison for the Society of Critical Care Medicine. His international work includes involvement with the expert panel for the Canadian Council for Donation and Transplantation, the Geneva Conference on Pediatric Donation, the Canadian Pediatric Donation after Circulatory Death guideline, The European Society of Transplantation (ESOT) International Concensus on Controlled Donation after Circulatory Death (Controlled Pediatric Donation after Circulatory Death), and The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and Healthcare (EDQM) Council of Europe.

Dr. Nakagawa is actively involved with the Society of Critical Care Medicine where he has held leadership positions including the Chair of the Pediatric Section Executive Steering Committee and the Representative for the Pediatric Designated Seat on the SCCM Council. Dr. Nakagawa has lectured extensively national and internationally and is recognized for his leadership and involvement with ethical issues, end-of-life care, donation and transplantation, determination of death, and his work in the field of pediatric medicine.