Lieutenant Maya Canak

Character Information

Gender		Female
Species		Human
Age		35

Physical Appearance

Height		5' 0"
Weight		115
Hair Color		Black
Eye Color		Brown
Physical Description		Maya prefers to call herself "compact" or "petite" rather than "short." While she is "under tall" and needs a chair or step stool to get to the upper shelves, she finds that her size can occasionally be an asset as it allows her to get into smaller spaces and behind crates with greater ease than someone who is tall. She is slim and, as she likes to put it, properly proportioned for being "fun sized."

Family

Father		Marco Canak
Mother		Lucia Gomez
Brother(s)		Pablo, Juan
Sister(s)		Carmen
Other Family		Fernando Canak, grandfather (deceased)

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Maya loves life and she loves nature—especially medicinal plants. She is generally cheerful, often energetic, and cares about people. Even when she's focused on work, she will often smile or tap her foot to the music playing in her head. She cares about her patients as individuals and treats the person as well as the problem.
Strengths & Weaknesses		Strengths: Compassionate, a good listener, cheerful, cares about the welfare of others. Is at home on a starship, in a colony, or out in the wilderness. Likes using holistic healing. She's as likely to give someone a hypospray as a cup of herb tea. She loves to learn about and use herbal remedies. Will often use ancient healing remedies that have been proven over time.   Weaknesses: She isn't one to suffer a fool. She'll be quiet about it, but she will try to avoid the pompous plutocrats as often as possible—sometimes giving herself extra shifts to avoid having to deal with them. Ice cream, especially with fruit or something plant-based with it. Like pineapple, blueberries, chocolate (from the cacao bean), cookie dough (flour, milk, chocolate chips), and bananas. Stubborn, especially when someone needs a doctor and refuses to go to sickbay. Is equally stubborn about making sure people take care of themselves. Collecting miniature replicas of Mayan figurines. Will often use ancient healing remedies that have been proven over time.
Ambitions		When she's done traveling the galaxy, she wants to go back to the Yucatan and become a country doctor.
Hobbies & Interests		Herbs and plants. She grows herbs in her quarters and in her office for teas and medicinal use. She plays the pan pipes, wooden flute, and guitar. Drawing with colored pencils. Mostly small drawings of plants and flowers. Woodcarving (small plants and animals)

Personal History		Maya was born and raised on the Yucatan Peninsula, where her family has lived for as long as they have records. Her father worked as a carpenter and woodworker and her mother taught literature. She learned to carve from her father and developed a love of reading from her mother.   Maya was always interested in plants, especially herbs and medicinal plants. She wanted to become a country doctor, like her grandfather. He knew all the native plants that were good for medicine and when he learned of Maya's interest, he took her with him when he went into the jungle to find the herbs he needed. She quickly learned which plants were beneficial and which were poisonous. She also learned how to dry the herbs and how to extract medicine from them.   Her parents encouraged her and bought her books about herbs and medicinal plants from across the galaxy.   While she was in her early teens, her older brother, Pablo, joined Starfleet. He'd call every so often with stories of space and the explorations of the USS Rwanda. She became fascinated with other worlds and their medicines, and the opportunity to travel and visit them herself. Slowly, she began to think of joining Starfleet herself.   However, she also wanted to work with her grandfather. Then, during her senior year, her grandfather passed away suddenly. Maya was years away from taking over his practice. Rather than stay and watch someone else take her grandfather's place, she applied for and was accepted to Starfleet Academy.   She already knew enough about basic medicine to assist her grandfather with most of his work; Starfleet gave her a solid foundation of Federation medicine to add to it. She loved learning about other cultures and their differing physiologies and immersed herself in learning as much as she could, graduating near the top of her class in medicine with an emphasis on holistic health.   She made a few friends, but there was so much to learn that Maya spent a good deal of her time in the library and as many holosuites as she could schedule. She became good friends with T'lani, a Vulcan in many of her classes. The two would share information about their home worlds and the ancient medicines their ancestors used. They were both assigned to the same two-year program for advanced medicine and helped each other study when they had a free evening.   Although they've been assigned to different ships, they still keep in touch from time to time.   Because of her grandfather's interest, whenever she learns of a new race or colony, she researches their medicine and if there isn't enough information, she'll take time to learn more and then publish a paper on it. she has just over a dozen papers published so far. When she has enough, she'll put them together in a collection.   Her office and quarters have pots of herbs and medicinal plants, as well as pieces from her collections. In this way, she always has a little part of home with her wherever she goes. In addition, she will occasionally gift someone a plant or miniature.
Service Record		Graduated from Starfleet Academy. Served as medical officer on the USS Castrovalva. Served as medical officer and gamma shift doctor on the USS Apollo. Served as the Assistant Chief Medical Officer on Starbase Thundercloud. Now serves as Chief Medical Officer on the USS Artemis.