Changing Her Tune

Former Band Director Turns to Pharmacy Profession

The daughter of educators, Kendra Ray of Waxahachie grew up wanting to teach and help people through education. She pursued music education and served as a marching band director for more than 10 years.

A major surgery in 2012 made her change career paths. After experiencing positive post-surgery interactions with her doctors, nurses and pharmacists, she decided to pursue a pharmacy career during the height of her success as a music educator.

"I had a great experience with my medical team, and I saw firsthand how medications can affect someone for the good if properly taken,” said Ray, a P4 Fisch College of Pharmacy student. “The doctors, nurses and pharmacists who cared for me were all on the same page – and I knew then I still wanted to help people, but in a different capacity.”

Having a passion for healthcare, she wanted to enter the medical field, but shied away from medical school or a nursing career due to an aversion to seeing and handling blood. And so, she pursued pharmacy instead.

“The way in which drugs react in the body and all the chemical changes – how medications work – I find that fascinating, and really, all the aspects that go into pharmacy,” Ray said.

Ray discovered UT Tyler and the Fisch College of Pharmacy by researching team-based learning (TBL), which is the core aspect of the college’s curriculum. The school utilizes TBL to help students think critically while communicating with others, and that aspect intrigued her.

Professors facilitate students’ learning and seek to optimize the TBL format in order to give student pharmacists the tools they need to become successful, Ray noted.

“Our learning style betters our interprofessional communication skills, which is used daily in all healthcare settings that we work in throughout the fourth year and into our career,” she said. “This allows us to give meaningful and quality care to patients, which is the goal of our profession as a whole.”

While at UT Tyler, Ray completed a rotation at the Northeast Texas Public Health District, where she educated the public and local businesses about COVID-19 as part of a team operating the COVID-19 information hotline. Her goal? To provide education in order to help decrease the transmission of the virus.

As part of that team, Ray answered phone calls regarding anything COVID related, such as providing guidance on where to be tested and reporting positive cases, explaining symptoms, providing recommendations from national and state health entities on how long to quarantine/self-isolate and what to expect after quarantining/self-isolating. She also provided information on when to obtain a COVID test as well as providing businesses with national and state entity recommendations regarding reopening and contact tracing.

“As there was little known about COVID-19 at the time, I wanted to get involved and help and provide the community with scientific-based evidence and guidance from national, state and local level health entities,” she said. “It felt good knowing that I was able to help people in that way.”  

Ray currently is on her third rotation, serving at UT Health East Texas in Tyler where she is assisting cardiovascular patients with their transition of care. Her ultimate career goal is to promote health and wellness within the East Texas community through patient education and quality care.

An avid animal lover, Ray enjoys the cinema, traveling and cooking.

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