Mayah Maccomas, Office Manager

Mayah was born and raised in the Island of Haiti.  At the age of 18, she moved to the US to attend college.  She lived a year in Trenton, Missouri, then transferred to Indiana Wesleyan University where she graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Business Administration and Marketing.  After graduation, Mayah spent 7 years in Indianapolis for the most part as a scoring supervisor for a standardized testing center.

Mayah never really liked winter and always missed the tropical weather of the Caribbean.  After a lot of prayers, Mayah decided in 2005 to call Florida home.  The Sunshine State reminds her of home and she loves a green Christmas with decorated palm trees and a cool breeze.

In 2001, Mayah developed a digestive condition that doctors wanted to treat with prescription drugs.  When the medicine given caused blurred vision, she stopped taking it regularly and only took it when absolutely necessary.  “I’ve never been fond of taking over the counter medicine even as a child.  During those years, I prayed for God to either heal me or show me another way to treat my illness.”  In 2007, after moving to Palm Harbor, she saw Dr. Piro’s billboard.  That felt like an answer to her prayer because two weeks prior she was searching online for a doctor.  Mayah spoke to Gina and a few weeks later she became a patient.

In April of 2008, Mayah got married to her sweetheart, Garbens, an Army veteran.  She was working as a Marketing Data Analyst, when she learned that there was an available position at the Piro Clinic.  “I realized then that a career in the natural medicine field is possible after all.  I considered it because I would have an impact on peoples’ life and health, but I did not think it possible due to age”. 

“As a patient, I’ve always appreciated the care that each of the office staff provided me.  My goal is to do the same for other patients.”

Mayah’s experience as a patient has given her a great understanding of patients needs. She greets everyone with warmth and kindness. Her smile always brightens the room!

 

Gina Garcia, Doctor's Assistant

Gina was born in Wisconsin and moved to Florida at the age of 10 with her parents, a brother and two sisters. She graduated from Countryside High School in 1994. Gina plans to continue her education in massage therapy.

As a child, Gina started having unexplained joint pains. The doctors could not find the cause and just continually prescribed Advil. After about a year of taking eight to twelve Advil a day, her kidneys began to fail. Again, she was given no explanation for this development. The doctors did not seem to think that the two conditions were linked in any way. Her diagnosis was an unsubstantiated autoimmune disease causing scarring of her kidneys. At 16 years old, she lost kidney function and went on dialysis.

Three years later, Gina met Dr. Piro via a mutual friend and Dr. Piro's husband, Lars, who were motorcycle riding friends. By 22 years old Gina was given a kidney transplant, Dr. Piro's husband, who was then the Executive Director of the clinic, hired Gina.

Dr. Piro remembers being skeptical of this decision as she knew the work in her clinic was very demanding and she was unsure of Gina's ability to keep up with it given her condition. But, Gina was very eager and willing to learn and use whatever natural medicines that would help her. Gina has since had a second transplant and realizes with the help of the natural medicines Dr. Piro prescribes, her medical doctors are willing to decrease and even stop some medications she has previously needed due to the transplants. And she feels much better!

“I started taking natural medicines and learning more about healthier ways of living. I found Dr. Piro to not only be my boss, but my mentor and a close friend. I love being a part of this group because I know we are helping people. Every time I witness another patients' success, I'm even more proud to be here.”

Gina has proven to be a very valuable asset to our clinic. Her ability of being certain that all patients' needs are filled, is only over shadowed by her belief that “laughter is the best medicine”. And Gina makes it her business to be sure every patient gets a healthy dose!

 

Brittany Beatty, Apothecary

Brittany was born in Louisiana and moved to Florida at the age of 2 with her parents and older brother. Brittany was home schooled and graduated in 2005. Brittany wanted to continue her education in the nutritional field but felt a bit intimidated by the amount of schooling in order to follow this career path. She decided to go to school for Dental Assisting but quickly found out it wasn't her forte.

This was about the time that Brittany 's fiancé, who works with Dr. Piro's husband told her she needs to meet Lars's wife, Janice. He told Brittany how cool Janice is and that she rides a motorcycle. Brittany was introduced to Janice and agreed she was exactly that, Cool. Soon after their meeting, Lars told Brittany she needs to call Dr. Piro because she was looking for a new staff member searching for a career in the natural health field. Brittany struggled with the idea of quitting dental school to begin her career but after some serious thought and consideration she decided that the Natural Health field is exactly where she wanted to be.

Brittany got to work on filling out her application for our office nervously. She realized she was taking it way to seriously & needed to relax. When Brittany came to the question “How do you see yourself?” this was her moment to shine! And that she did! She answered it with, “I'm a ROCKSTAR!”. When Gina & Tricia read this they realized they had a winner, someone that will keep the mood light and add to the flavor of our office.

Brittany is now a part of our family and team. We all love her sweet, fun loving personality and look forward to teaching her, learning from her and laughing with her for many years to come.