Reach for the Sky
An easygoing cowboy ambles from room to room, guitar in hand, strumming as he goes. Yellow shirt, cowhide vest, scarlet bandana, tan hat — wardrobe choices unmistakable to even the youngest patients.
When the kids see him, when parents catch on, something shifts in the corridors of Golisano Children’s at UK. Faces light up. Spirits lift. It’s a small magic, but the kind that matters here.
Every October, the Golisano Children’s at UK staff — doctors, nurses, everyone — become someone else. They parade through in costume, bringing trick-or-treat excitement to children who can’t leave their beds to find it themselves.
Dr. Scottie Day never misses it. The vice president of children’s health at UK HealthCare and physician-in-chief of Golisano Children’s at UK, has dressed as Sulley (from “Monster’s Inc.”), a Minion, even the tooth fairy over the years. But there’s something about Day dressed as Woody from the “Toy Story” franchise that feels like the elixir for aches you can’t treat with medicine alone.
It’s not the costume itself. It’s the Woody-ness Day embodies.
Like Woody, Day carries quiet authority, guiding his team with steady hands and a clear head, even when the hospital floor is a blur of alarms, movement and emotion. When a problem arises, he’s already thinking two steps ahead, finding solutions with calm creativity that keeps children safe and parents reassured. And beneath it all, there’s genuine empathy, a knack for noticing when a child is scared or lonely, and knowing just how to reach them.
“I want to make sure that the care we provide here is the same care I’d have for my own kids,” Day said. “If it’s not – if I don’t feel like it’s good enough for my kids – then we shouldn’t have it.”
A pivotal choice
Day’s story, like most good books, is divided into chapters. If it were an actual book, it’d be a wild amalgamation of “Gray’s Anatomy,” a well-worn Bible and an Appalachian songbook — a blend of science, faith and melody he grew up with in Leslie County.
One of the ways Day reaches even his most fearful patients is through music. He’s long understood how a song can slip past a child’s defenses, how a familiar tune can reach kids who are shut down or scared in ways words alone cannot.
Medical resources were scarce in his home community of Cutshin, a reality Day noticed even as a child. Even then, he believed he could make a difference in Kentucky, sensing early that his future lay in medicine.
His musical talents, however, were often at odds with his medical aspirations. He learned piano first, then picked up any instrument he could find. Guitar, piano, organ, mandolin, ukulele, drums — even marimba and xylophone — came with a fluency of someone who can't remember a time when music wasn't part of him.
As a teen, Day began making a name as a musician. At 14, he formed a band. He stood out in his high school marching band, advancing to state competitions for drumming, and traveled from Eastern Kentucky to bring his brand of homespun music to cities like Cincinnati and Philadelphia.
His talent carried him to The Nashville Network, where he appeared in music videos and took part in recording sessions. “I was going full blast music,” Day said with a note of nostalgia. “It’s almost like a completely other life.”
When he wanted to learn a new instrument, he simply made it happen.
“I couldn't travel with a piano," he laughed, "so I sat down on the front porch and played until my fingers bled, because I knew if I could get calluses, then I would eventually play the guitar.
“I wasn't some grandiose, superstar academic achiever in high school,” Day laughingly admits. “I had good grades, but I wasn't valedictorian. I wasn’t the guy who got up and gave the academic speech; I was the guy at graduation who sang ‘Standing Outside the Fire.’”
(That may explain why his impersonation of Woody sounds less like Tom Hanks and more like Garth Brooks.)
After earning an associate degree from Hazard Community College, Day faced a pivotal choice. He’d been accepted to Belmont University to pursue music, but his lifelong interest in medicine and caring for his community kept calling him back.
He wrestled with the decision.
“I was like, ‘Am I gonna do music or am I gonna do medicine?’”
A mentor later put it plainly: it would be nearly impossible to do both at the level Day demanded of himself. Ultimately, he tucked his musical aspirations away. He followed his older brother, Mike, to UK, studying on the prestigious Otis A. Singletary Scholarship. He earned degrees in biology and medicine.
“The only thing to say is that I chose medicine and I came here [to UK] and it was the best decision I ever made,” Day said.
The gift of presence
After earning his medical degree, he completed a residency at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health, Indianapolis, and a fellowship in critical care at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Following a year in Hawaii, where he was actively involved in the development of the Pediatric Early Warning System at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, he returned to his alma mater in 2011.
Music, however, never left him.
“During my most stressful times, I spend time playing music,” he said.
He still plays keys at Southland Christian Church every few weeks, still brings his guitar into patient rooms and serenades them when the moment calls for it, still understands that sometimes a song can communicate care and presence better than any medical intervention.
It’s a balance he’s learned to strike — the weight of leadership, the demands of practicing medicine and the need to remain present for the most difficult moments.
“Sometimes the hardest things to do are the most meaningful, Day admits. “The hardest thing to do is to sit and tell a parent, ‘We’ll do everything possible, but I don’t think your child’s going to survive.’ While extremely challenging, it’s also an honor to serve a family during that period of time.”
Fortunately, as Day is quick to point out, those instances are rare — and becoming fewer and far between.
Expanding care for Kentucky’s kids
Even in a specialty where pay is comparatively lower and doctors are scarce, Day has recruited more than 100 pediatricians in five years — always focused on the kids.
“It shouldn’t matter whether you come from Eastern Kentucky or from a big city. It shouldn’t matter your wealth to determine what kind of access you have to healthcare,” Day said.
Under his leadership, UK has expanded pediatric mental health services, built a developmental pediatrics facility in partnership with Easterseals, and created an affiliate network of hospitals across the Commonwealth – all working to keep kids close to home.
“We’re one of the fastest growing children’s hospitals in the country,” he said. “We’re serving more kids than we’ve ever served before.”
But he’s quick to redirect credit: “I’ve not done a single thing by myself, and I’ll never be successful by myself. It’s frontline people who keep all this going.”
He still practices medicine alongside his administrative duties – something rare for someone in his position. On many nights, he can be found walking the halls with the nurses and residents, just another doctor on call, sometimes with a guitar around his neck.
“Some of my fondest memories here have been just playing in front of the patients – and the patients love it,” Day said. “They'll dance, or they'll come out in the hallways and have fun.”
His approach to life
Day’s personal faith threads through how he approaches both life and work. He’s preached at funerals for patients, been there for families in their darkest moments and tries to see the humanity in everyone he encounters.
“Faith, family, friends and purpose – those are the four things that guide my life,” he said.
He pauses, then adds a caution he shares with students: “Don’t forget to live life while you’re on your way to your destination.”
It’s advice from someone who admits he struggled with “destination addiction,” always pushing toward the next goal without pausing to appreciate the present. Therapy and time have taught him balance, though the drive remains.
He met his wife, Kristi — also a physician and UK medical school alumna — “over a spinal cord in a cadaver lab.” While hardly the basis for a romance novel, it’s brought a lifelong partnership, a family and a home that reflects the balance he values. The couple married in 2002 and now have four children. They live on a small farm in Nicholasville, though Day is quick to clarify with a grin, “Farm’s a strong stretch” for their five acres.
Family is central to who he is. He loves time together – whether traveling somewhere new or playing soccer in the yard. Alongside his wife, he has built a home that welcomes all children, from evening worship nights to dinners gathered around the table.
New Day
After a $50 million gift was made to UK and UK HealthCare in October 2025, Day was characteristically humble and even a little emotional.
“When I thought about the gift … I was a little bit in tears when we were sitting around the room and Mr. Golisano told us. I was just in shock,” Day said of the gift that was provided by philanthropist and entrepreneur Tom Golisano to transform pediatric healthcare in Kentucky.
“I never thought I’d be here for the naming of this children’s hospital,” he said. “I’d have never imagined we’d be where we are today.”
He thinks of the people who came before him, particularly Dr. Jacqueline Noonan, the pediatric cardiologist whose name graces his endowed chair.
“When I think about it, I bet they’d never have imagined we’d be where we are today either,” he said.
The gift represents something beyond money – it’s validation of a vision.
“Someone saying we believe in the vision of this institution, and I get to be a part of carrying that vision... it’s unbelievable,” Day said.
The emotion is still raw in his voice.
And he thinks of what’s next: expanded mental health services, better care for children with autism and complex needs, programs that will reach every corner of Kentucky.
“If we don’t do it, it doesn’t happen,” Day said.
It’s a responsibility he embraces. “Some would say it’s a huge burden, but it’s a huge opportunity,” he said. “It depends on how you shape it.”
As long as he feels purpose, Day said he plans to stay put at UK. The coal miner’s hat on his wall reminds him daily of how far he’s come and why the work matters. The guitars in his office remind him that healing takes many forms. And the kids receiving care at UK Golisano Children’s remind him why none of the titles or accolades mean anything compared with being present when families need him most.
Whether he becomes Bluey, Grogu or his favorite Avenger when Halloween next rolls around, it’s doubtful any costume will ever feel as perfectly him as Day in his cowhide vest, ambling through the halls, lifting spirits, Woody's familiar words drifting ahead of him:
“…There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you / We stick together and we see it through, ’cause / You’ve got a friend in me.”
