Majority Leader Patricia D. Mc Dow

City Council Member, District One

Since January 2006 Council Member Patricia McDow has been proud to serve as the City’s first female Majority Leader, a position to which her Council peers selected her to serve. In addition to serving as the City Council’s Majority Leader, she has represented the residents of the First District since 2004. Patricia McDow has been a part of the Southwest section of Yonkers since 1978. 

District One is located in the southwest section of Yonkers, and includes the Yonkers Waterfront, as well as a breadth of other housing communities – small neighborhoods, multi-family apartments, large building complexes, the government center and Downtown Business District. As a Council Member representing these communities, Majority Leader McDow’s goals are to insure that the people of Yonkers are considered first when job opportunities are made available, that they are given the opportunity to obtain a quality education, and to maintain affordable housing opportunities in her community.  

Majority Leader McDow describes her highest priority as informing and empowering her constituents. Her dedication to engaging the communities she represents has prompted her outreach efforts to take a multilevel and multimedia approach. She holds frequent Town halls meetings, maintains important information for residents on her personal web site (www.patriciamcdow.com), sends out monthly e-mail newsletters, and maintains a Community Services Committee Advisory Board.

Ms. McDow serves as Chair of the Yonkers City Council’s Committees on Community Services, Intergovernmental Relations, and Legislation & Codes. She is also a member of the Budget, Education, Real Estate, Franchise, and Rules Committees. As Chair of the Community Service committee, Ms. McDow has implemented programs such as the Strategic Business Alliance of Yonkers (SBAY); a Minority and Women-Owned Business Organization which was created to assist business owners who live or operate their business in the City of Yonkers; implemented a Love Thyself Stop The Violence Day in the City of Yonkers, to teach young adults that there alterative ways to express anger; developed a News Log for the Democratic Council; formulated a Community Services Committee Advisory Board; developed a Neighbors Helping Neighbors Program; and created an Online Community Newsletter. Patricia is currently assisting in the development of the Council’s Website and E-mail project, Fire Safety/Prevention Road Show and A Grandparents Forum. 

Patricia McDow firmly believes that “in order to be successful, you must empower yourself so that you can empower others.”  To that end, she is active in many Civic and Business partnerships – such as the Yonkers Chamber of Commerce, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and the Women in Business Committee. She also serves on many boards – such as  Yonkers Downtown Waterfront BID; the Yonkers YMCA ; Sister to Sister International; Jewish  Board for Children and Family Support; The Bronx, Manhattan, Yonkers M29 Joint Monitoring Committee; Grandpower advocacy project Advisory Committee, Gang & Violence Prevention Task Force and the Yonkers Sewage Treatment Advisory Group.  She is an active member of the Democratic Party serving as  District Leader.  As the State Committee Chair, she sits on the Westchester County Democratic Committee and on the Yonkers Democratic Executive Committee and is an officer of the New York State Reform Caucus Committee. 

Patricia’s community service includes volunteering as a mentor in the Martha Sloan Greenwalt Young Women's Mentoring Program, and as a member of the Yonkers Chapter of the NAACP.  Ms. McDow is a board member of the Westside Youth Tennis Organization and Westchester County Women's Advisory Board.  As an active member of her sorority Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., Patricia works on numerous community projects throughout Westchester County. 

A  native New Yorker who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Manhattan & the North Bronx, Patricia attended New York City public schools.  She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Early Education N-6 from SUNY New Paltz and her Master of Arts Degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from C.W. Post College. She has worked as a Speech Pathologist at Rockland Children’s Psychiatric Hospital and the Northport V.A. Hospital.  As a New York State Licensed teacher, she has taught in both the Mount Vernon and Greenburgh School Districts. 

In 1985, Patricia decided to follow in the footsteps of her mother and become an entrepreneur.  She returned to school to develop a trade in skin and nail care.  As a licensed nail technician and licensed esthetician, Patricia developed her own line of cosmetics: “Tricia Cosmetics.”  In addition, she is the Founder and President of TriciaBusinessImage.com, a web development and consulting firm located in Yonkers.

In addition to her active community outreach, such as her monthly e-mail newsletters and personal web site (www.patriciamcdow.com), Patricia McDow, maintains regular office hours and can be reached at her City Hall Office (40 South Broadway, Room 407, Yonkers, New York, 10701) all day on Tuesdays beginning at 9:00am. To make an appointment, call Tracy Fields, Chief of Staff at 914.377.6311.

Self Employed:

Tricia Business Image.Com

Web Site Development

Professional Licenses:

• New York State Teaching License N-6
• New York State Notary License
• New York State Nail Specialty
• New York State Esthetics

Memberships:

·         Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.

·         Democratic Club

• African-American Chamber of Commerce

Board Memberships:

• Westchester Women's Advisory
• YMCA
• Sister To Sister International
• Westside Youth Organization
• Jewish  Board for Children and Family Support
• The Bronx, Manhattan, Yonkers M29 Joint Monitoring Committee

Hobbies:

• Tennis
• Golf
• Scuba
• Reading
• Horse Back Riding

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Malcolm X