Raising Her Voice On Stage and Against Health Disparities

Kathryn Day channels her determined spirit as a punk singer and a humanities scholar fighting for health equity.

Some college students go for a walk, draw, or take a nap to give their brains a break from studying. Kathryn Day’s favorite way to unwind is performing with her punk band.

“It’s not healthy to have school or work be the only thing in your life,” she said. “I needed to channel my energy into something creative. It isn’t always easy, but making time for music is what I need to do.”

Day arrived at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) in the fall of 2020, when students couldn’t gather indoors. Like many students at the Colleges of the Fenway, she walked over to Evans Way Park for fresh air and to be around other people. That’s where she met her now-bandmates.

“They were some of the first friends I ever made,” said Day, BA ’24, who is the frontwoman of the band Roaches, All the Way Up. “We all wanted to make music. We enjoyed each other’s company, and it all just kind of came together.”

Picking Punk

Day spent her free time attending small punk shows in Boston and getting to know the tight-knit punk scene. When she and her bandmates started making music of their own, she says they didn’t necessarily choose the genre; rather, it chose them.

“We spent a long time trying to figure out how to categorize ourselves but always struggled to find the right words to describe our sound,” she explained. “A big part of why we settled on making punk-adjacent music is because it’s just so fun.”

Roaches, All the Way Up plays basement shows and at some bars across the city. While they mostly perform original songs, they thrive beyond labels, performing music that they find fun or interesting, like covering country icon Willie Nelson or a six-minute punk musical version of an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

“I’m really inspired by bands that emerged from the British post-punk revival scene,” Day said. “Their ability to so seamlessly and creatively bring together that raw post-punk vibe with other genres is so incredible, especially to someone like me whose range of musical influence is so all over the place.”

A Calling to Make Change

When she’s not rehearsing or performing with the band, Day has a clear vision for her career. With a background in health humanities, she hopes to uncover and implement ways to make the healthcare system more equitable. She’s taking the first step on that path by working as a research assistant to one of the country’s foremost humanities and ethics scholars, Dr. Keisha Ray.

“It’s exciting to work for someone who is so successfully doing exactly what I hope to do someday,” Day said. “It feels like a perfect fit.”

Day’s interest in health disparities began long before she arrived at MCPHS. She remembers being 15 years old and reading “Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness by Alisa Roth,” which described prisons as being among the largest healthcare providers in the country and explained how two-thirds of U.S. inmates had diagnosable mental illnesses.

“I realized there is a deep relationship between the criminal justice system and healthcare, so I decided to step back and learn how the healthcare system works,” she recalled. “I knew I wanted to be in healthcare in a non-clinical way. I wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted to do that, but I knew MCPHS would be the place for me to find out.”

Finding the Right Fit

Day began her college career with an open mind. Then, one day during her freshman year, her writing professor mentioned the health humanities major, which was new at the time.

“It immediately clicked that it was what I wanted out of a program. Over the next three years, I had so much control over what I was learning and freedom to explore so many different subjects.”

Through her studies, Day never lost her commitment to exploring health disparities and understanding how different populations can be more vulnerable to certain health issues.

“Learning about how deep the problem is opened my eyes to how much work there is to be done,” she said. Day started that work while she was still a student. For her Honors Program research project, she analyzed national data to determine whether certain crimes are associated with public health concerns. For example, they uncovered a relationship between the number of people in a community who reported being in poor health and the number of crimes committed in that community in which a person is physically victimizing another.

She says that deep data and analysis work will serve her well as she begins work for Dr. Ray.

“I had a little fear coming out of this program, wondering what I could do for a job,” she said. “Seeing Dr. Ray, a well-respected professor who works so deeply in this field, eased all those fears. I’m very much looking forward to the experience.”

Day said she plans to continue her education, likely pursing a public health program with a focus on health policy. In the meantime, her songwriting and punk performances will remain a creative outlet at she tackles some of the most difficult issues in healthcare.

“In order to truly fix the healthcare system, the people who work in it need a more humanitarian perspective on the issues,” she said. “It requires a different type of thinking that is so valuable for improving people’s experience with healthcare.”