We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mary Ann Garcia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mary Ann below.

Mary Ann, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

I remember walking into the ER thinking this was everything I ever wanted, feeling overwhelmingly excited to be able to care for patients. My dream of helping people was coming to life, I was the tender age of 19 working in a Level III Trauma Center being exposed to every type of patient, not knowing what I was in for. I always knew that helping people was in my future this is how I imagined I would be able to fulfill that passion. I quickly discovered I was not equipped with the emotional capacity to endure such traumatic experiences and my heart just could not take such exposure. I remember going home every night and crying myself to sleep. Remembering babies crying, someone’s grandmother being left all alone with no one to hold their hand while they were in pain. I witnessed death and sadness all around me and I thought to myself I can’t do this for the rest of my life. That’s when I knew I had to make a change. This was not for the weak at heart! What could I do that still involved healthcare but I wouldn’t be directly impacted by the revolving emotions involved in patient care, Health Care Administration was the way for me to go, I’d still be helping except this way it didn’t involve direct patient care. It was perfect, here I am 20 years later still fulfilling my passion of helping people.

Mary Ann, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As mentioned before my passion has always been to help people, and I thought healthcare was the way to execute this. After 10 years in this field, that need wasn’t being fulfilled completely and I started to explore other options. I quickly discovered volunteering my time to local organizations genuinely brought joy to my soul and I found myself wanting to get more civically engaged. That’s when Raices Unidas was born, to this day we have brought smiles to over 2k students in underserved area within Houston, with a focus on the Southeast side of town. These are the communities that raised me and it only felt right to give back to where I was raised. In doing this Beauty Factory was born. My goal was to open a spa where our services could be donated to local women shelters to help with building their broken self-esteem. This was just the beginning of what I envisioned doing. Along the way I have had the privilege to meet some amazing community leaders who have given me the opportunity to live out my lifelong dream of helping people within our community. I now serve on several local boards and am surrounded by motivational and inspirational human beings who not only help me fulfill my dream but also inspire me to aim much higher.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Throughout the years I had to unlearn to see the good in people. I’ve had to endure lots of heartbreak along the way because I naturally see the good in all. I had to unlearn this because not everyone that comes into your life comes with pure intentions. I have got to say that this has been one of the hardest lessons to learn or in this case unlearn along my journey. My grandmother played a tremendous role in my outlook on life, She saw the good in everyone and believed that a person’s good intentions would always outweigh the bad. Unfortunately, there were some people who surrounded me that didn’t always have my best interest at heart and I had to make a difficult decision to part ways with them. In doing this it brought me great sadness but also opened the door for so much positivity, peace, and, light to enter. Now looking back, it was the best decision I could have made.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

People who have taken the time to get to know me, know that my actions all come from within. That my intentions have always been pure and genuine. I truly believe if our actions come from the heart everything else falls into place. I exercise this not only within my career but with Beauty Factory, Raices Unidas, and all the Boards I have the honor of serving on. Being a kind, genuine, human being, I feel has truly defined my character as I have worked throughout the years to build a name for myself.

Contact information:

• Website: https://memorialhermann.org/locations/wound-care-southeast?utm_campaign=reputation-management&utm_segment=gmb_listing-link&utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic-search
  https://www.memorialhermann.org/locations/wound-care-pearland
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaicesUnidasHtx
  https://www.facebook.com/Beauty-factory-100957478868890