Scott McLean is a writer and clinical geneticist living in San Antonio, Texas.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Scott played lacrosse (center midfield), enjoyed long hair and work boots in the 1970’s, majored in English at Hamilton College in upstate NY, and for two years taught high school English at the prep school that he had attended – St. James School, which is very close to Antietam battlefield. At the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass, he trained as a noninvasive peripheral vascular technician under the late Dr. Al Persson. He attended medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, which meant that he had to cut his hair and take the oath of office to serve as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force. 2ndLt McLean learned to march, but it wasn’t pretty. Pete Mapes, a B-52 pilot who was also starting med school, showed him how to about face, a skill that has come in handy on numerous occasions over the last 4 decades.
In anatomy class, Scott met an Army girl, Paula Vogel. They married in 1985, Scott switched to the Army, and a year later the commissioned officers were assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA, to learn internal medicine (Paula) and pediatrics (Scott). Their first assignment after residency was at the 121 Evacuation Hospital, Yongsan, South Korea, after which they returned to the Washington, D.C. area for more training – dermatology for Paula, clinical genetics for Scott at Children’s National Medical Center. The Army then sent them to El Paso and later to San Antonio, Texas. Colonel McLean retired in 2008 with 26 years in service.
Along the way, Scott saw lots of patients and helped design health care policy for the Department of Defense, creating guidelines and leading work groups for newborn screening and serving a Consultant to the Army Surgeon General. He served ex officio with national policy groups – the ACMG Expert Group that recommended the first uniform, universal panel of conditions for newborn screening for the nation, and the Secretary’s Advisory Group on Genetics, Health, and Society. He deployed with the 27th Main Support Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, to Taji, Iraq, 2004 – 2005.
Following his military career, Dr. McLean joined Baylor College of Medicine as a clinical geneticist at CHRISTUS Children’s, a free-standing children’s hospital in San Antonio. He retired from clinical practice in 2024 as Professor Emeritus and remains active in genetic research, focused on discovery and delineation of novel genetic syndromes.
Scott’s poetry has been published in Red Weather, medmic, Liminal Spaces Magazine, and Line of Advance Literary Journal. He is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas and the Veteran Writers’ Collective at Gemini Ink.
Currently he is pursuing an MFA in creative writing (F/NF) at Fairfield University and expects to graduate in July 2027.
