Aldermen review three candidates for Board of Health slot

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NASHUA, NH – In a rare occurrence, the Nashua Board of Aldermen Personnel and Administrative Affairs Committee undertook interviews with three qualified candidates seeking to fill a single open seat on the Nashua Board of Health.

Harbor Care President and Chief Executive Officer Henry Och was introduced to the committee by Nashua Chief Public Health Official Bobbie Bagley, leading some Aldermen to question what relationship either of the other two other candidates would have with Bagley and other Health Department officials given this seeming endorsement from Bagley.

There were also conflict of interest concerns if the topic of Harbor Care, one of Nashua’s largest health and human service organizations, came before the board.

Och felt confident that he could avoid any concerns related from these two points and Aldermen were deeply Och’s extensive resume with 30 years of various business and healthcare-related experiences, highlighted by his role in helping find residences for 200 chronically homeless individuals in the Nashua area.

If faced with another public health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Och felt positive that he could handle the challenge given his existing experience of coordination with the Nashua Health Department in recent years as well as six emergency responses over 23 years of service with the U.S. Army National Guard.

Och is also on track to earn a doctorate in psychology, which would put him in line to obtain the direct experience as a care provider already held by the other two candidates: Frances Nutter-Upham and Wanda Lanigan.

Nutter-Upham brings over two decades of experience as a mental health counselor, specializing in art therapy as well as six years serving on the New Hampshire House of Representatives’ Committee on Health, Human Services and Elder Affairs.

Lanigan is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and associate professor in mental health, as she transitioned into a more specialized nursing focus after over two decades of nursing experience with other medical focuses.

Although Lanigan lives in Merrimack, it was noted that fact would be unlikely to count as a negative in judging her capacity for the role given her experience and proximity to Nashua’s medical community, with Lanigan also noting her experience on Merrimack’s Planning Board.

Given the qualifications of all three candidates, the committee recommended all of them to the full Board of Aldermen for final determination of who would take the seat.

The seat was recently vacated by Dr. Anthony Storace, a local dentist practicing in Nashua since 1980 and having served on the board since 1998 in addition to stints as President of the Nashua District Dental Society and New Hampshire Dental Society along with other accolades.

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