Page 22 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2025 - Online Magazine

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"It's Kingdom Work"

Dr. Patti Joiner

performance. “I credit LCU with changing me from a
very shy, rural kid into a solid medical school applicant.”
After graduating from LCU in 1978, she was accepted to
the oldest medical school west of the Mississippi River—
the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
“Medical school is hard,” she recalled. “Intellectually,
physically, emotionally, spiritually—in every possible
way, it’s exhausting. One of the most important things
Patterson credited LCU not only with helping her for me in Galveston was the little church we attended.
discover her passion for medicine, but also inspiring Churches in tourist towns can struggle—you get big
her self-confidence.
swells and dearths, but ours was mostly full of people
from the medical center. I gained some lifelong friends
hen Dr. Patti Patterson Joiner decided on a there—it was vital.”
career practicing medicine, she knew that she
Wwanted to work with children—but she didn’t Even so, it wasn’t long before Dr. Patterson began
know the dark places where that work would take her, practicing medicine on her own, back in West Texas.
nor the light she would carry into the lives she would “I couldn’t decide between pediatrics and family
encounter. medicine,” she admitted, “and I did a year of family
medicine at Texas Tech Amarillo before I realized that
Patti Patterson grew up in Hale Center, a small West I was happiest when I was delivering and working on
Texas town on I-27, 35 miles north of Lubbock, but babies.”
when she chose to pursue a biology degree at Lubbock
Christian University in preparation for medical school, Patterson quickly discovered that she wanted to work
she was unsure of how well she would do with such with babies, a calling that developed into a lifelong
rigorous coursework. passion. With that revelation, she returned to UTMB
Galveston’s renowned pediatrics program, to complete
Patterson credited LCU not only with helping her three years of residency and then two years in her chief
discover her passion for medicine but also inspiring residency. During that time, Patti found God calling
her self-confidence. “Coming from a tiny high school, again upon some of her deepest passions, particularly
I really had no idea if I could even complete the when she came into contact with infants and children
curriculum, or if I was even smart enough for medical who had been subject to abuse.
school,” she recalled. “But when I got to LCU, I found so
much support and many fantastic mentors. Dr. (Gary) “In residency, I saw kids who had been abused and
Estep, Dr. (Perry) Mason, Reese Bryant—there were just needed someone to stand up for them,” she recalled.
a lot of people who poured into me over those years. “CPS does an amazing job—the best job they can—but
Even lifelong friends —some of my best friends are sometimes a child really needs an advocate on the
people I met there.” medical side of things, someone who can stand up and
say, ‘If something doesn’t change, this kid is in real
As those mentors walked with Patti during her time danger.’ Often, as a physician, just from knowing the
at LCU, she discovered confidence in her academic mechanics of an injury, you can tell that the story given

22 Lubbock Senior Link