Dr. Patti: Commissioner Interview
The Maryland Two Fifty Commission is composed of community leaders whose love of service is the driving force behind the work they do for our state. This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with the Commission’s newest member, Patricia L.Maclay, MD, who is a true embodiment of the role.
As the second born to a lower-income family with six children, Dr. Patti shared that a “joy of service” was instilled in her from a very young age. Through her early schooling, Dr. Patti’s love of serving others further developed after she joined the Girl Scouts organization. Once she reached high school, she was faced with the dilemma of deciding a profession in history or medicine. At the time, Dr. Patti interpreted the medical field to center service more than her other interests, which made choosing medicine a no-brainer. As a result, Dr. Patti majored in pre-med at the University of Pittsburgh. During her time in college, she sought out a Service Sorority, Gamma Signa Sigma, and when she became chapter president, focused service efforts on the low-income neighborhoods near the school’s campus.
For financial reasons, Dr. Patti applied early for admission to medical school, and took advantage of an opportunity that allowed her to apply to medical school after two years of college as opposed to four, and she attended with the help of grants, scholarships and loans. She studied at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine from 1970 to 1974, and graduated as one of three chief medical residents, being the first woman to hold that position.
Throughout her medical studies, Dr. Patti developed a desire to treat the whole patient – mind, body, and spirit. Following this passion, she accepted a two-year fellowship in rheumatology at Mount Sinai Hospital, which was the epicenter of clinical rheumatology at the time. Dr. Patti joined a rheumatology practice in Pittsburgh, which was the largest such group in the city. Within a few years, Dr. Patti had the opportunity to cohost a radio call-in talk show and eventually made periodic appearances on WTAE TV where she discussed medicine and medical diagnoses. She loved to teach, and this fulfilled her desire to do so on a large scale.In 1990, Dr. Patti moved to Orlando, Florida, and opened her own rheumatology practice there. With her love of service continuously moving through her, Dr. Patti later became the Chair of the Board of the Arthritis Foundation in Central Florida, as well as a member of its National Board of Directors. In 1992, she was a Presidential Point of Light nominee for outstanding voluntary service.
As a rheumatologist, Dr. Patti focused on teaching patients about the link between stress and disease. This interest led her to develop an educational program that sought to raise public awareness about the ways in which stress affects the body from a physiological standpoint. She still gives these presentations today, and has even taken her teaching abroad.
Dr. Patti is a mother of two daughters, who have both become quite successful in their own respective careers. Her daughter Sabrina is an attorney, working in the world of nonprofit law. She is presently a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Policy Research at the University of Bath, UK and is creating a program focused on transparency in large-donor philanthropy to small NGOs. She lives in Kigali, Rwanda with her husband who does the logistics for food distribution for the UN World Food organization. Together they have two children, ages 8 and 5.
Dr. Patti’s daughter Elysia is the head of public programming and museum education at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York, as well as their Lead Teaching Artist. She also has her own show on NASA’s Space Flight Youtube channel entitled, “This Week in Space Flight.” What once was a channel with a few hundred followers now has an audience of 1.43 million, thanks to her work as the channel’s anchor.
At this juncture in her life, Dr. Patti has returned her interests to the sphere of history. She has always enjoyed learning about history, and its tendency to repeat itself. She has come to understand that history also has its place in service. “I thought of medicine as the best way to serve, not really understanding that history is a great way to do service when you educate with it.” She mainly focuses on the American Revolution and WWII, both major events that saw changes in public sentiment, diplomacy, and methods of warfare.
When asked about her career trajectory and how it influenced her work, Dr. Patti shared that she was able to align her work with service by caring for low-income patients. She has experience volunteering in medical clinics that accept all patients, regardless of income or status. This work helped her develop an understanding of the effects of stress on disease development, and allowed her to perfect her own personal response to stress. As a result, she learned how to balance work, parenthood, and service. “Different sets of chemicals work in the body when faced with stress versus calm, bu tto feel challenged is using the very best part of both!”
Her community service trajectory began with her family, was formalized through Girl Scouts and high school service clubs, and continued in college with Gamma Signa Sigma, all while prioritizing her schoolwork to ensure acceptance to medical school. Since retiring from medicine, Dr. Patti has provided free medical consulting, worked with the League of Women Voters, and helped Syrian refugees with their education as well as worked to set up community businesses for selling their Syrian food. She has served on the executive board of the Montgomery County Commission for Women and held multiple organizational roles in the Women’s Legislative Briefing, as well as created and co-chaired the Commission’s suffrage program in 2019. Dr. Patti is currently the Vice Regent of Maryland for the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and will become the State Regent in June 2027.
Dr. Patti is the national chair for the DAR’s Franco-American Memorial Committee and serves on the boards of the American Friends of Lafayette and Le Souvenir Français. Her interest in Lafayette stems from learning about his early commitment to human rights advocacy and his close bond with George Washington. “I became very interested in Lafayette as a person who, at a very young age, began to see the importance of human rights, which became magnified in his work after he served in the American Revolution”. She served as National Vice Chair of the American Friends of Lafayette’s recreated Lafayette Farewell Tour (1824 – 1825) done to celebrate the Bicentennial of this event in 2024 – 2025. This series of events followed Lafayette’s exact itinerary and covered the entire 13-month tour, which included 24 states, and covered 6,000 miles.
When it comes to the Daughters of the American Revolution, Dr. Patti wants Marylanders to know that “Today’s” DAR is a highly inclusive women’s service organization focused on historic preservation, education, and patriotism. She encourages people to move past the historical stereotype of “white women wearing white gloves and white pearls”. The DAR’s service includes work in areas of poverty, domestic violence, food insecurity, literacy promotion, especially ESOL, and support for veterans and active duty military, to name just a few areas of focus. Membership is inclusive of all ages, ethnicities, and nationalities, and is based on an ancestor’s service in the American Revolution; service being defined in many ways beside being a soldier. The organization now uses DNA to help document ancestry, especially in areas like African-American and Native American lineage when historical papers are often not available. The DAR demonstrates its commitment to inclusion through its Forgotten Patriots Committee, established in the 1980s to research and document patriots of color and women for membership. Dr. Patti is personally assisting with an application for Jayla Elise, a rising music star in Maryland, who has strong lineage. While Dr. Patti stated she does not enjoy genealogy personally, she discussed the historical intricacies of lineage, including her own Scot-Irish family’s history and the documentation of her ancestors who served as Patriots in the American Revolution.
Dr. Patti views America as a “living organism,” analogous to the human body, where “We the People” are the cells” and organizations like the government, businesses, and NGOs are the organs. “Underneath the skin, we all look the same. I love my country and look at it as the “nation-body.”My hope is that we will all finally see one another in our sameness and not our differences.” Dr. Patti hopes we can work together to be a single nation, upheld by the universal golden rule.
When asked about her wishes for the Maryland 250 Commission, she wants the Maryland 250 Commission to be remembered for leading with a focus on an inclusive story of everyone’s 250-year history in America. She wants the commission to help every Marylander “see their place in history” by recognizing their family’s historical contributions to America’s nation-building and how their own contributions to their communities today will “make history.” Just like every human being carries their history in their DNA, America also has a “DNA” and each and everyone of us is an important part of it!sWhen addressing Marylanders who feel powerless or disillusioned, Dr. Patti explained that these are normal feelings, but the best and only helpful path forward is through choosing “challenge.”. She encourages Marylanders to make a difference through the challenge of service; service guided by the golden rule: “Do unto others as you wish done to you.” The greatest difference is often made through “small acts,” such as complimenting a clerk on their smile, or offering a neighbor a hand. This not only changes the fabric of our own daily lives, but also that of America. In closing, Dr. Patti encouraged everyone to “take on the challenge” to change their approach to the world by reflecting on how they wish to be served (treated), and then letting that knowledge of service lead to changes in themselves, their community, Maryland, and America. MD Two Fifty Commissioner Patricia Maclay, MD, is truly a powerhouse of service, and we are grateful to have leaders such as herself representing the MD Two Fifty Commission.