Meet The Team

Dr. John M. Pierce is the owner and founder of NNPT; established in 2002. John is the team Doctor and official team physical therapist for the ECHL Florida Everblades professional ice hockey team. He holds 28 years of clinical experience in orthopedics including 3 years neurology experience working with brain injury and coma recovery. John has co-authored and been published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

John has been a Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist (OCS) since 2009 and completed the examination process being re-Certified in March 2018, awarding him certification through 2029. He is a triple certified manual physical therapist, being Manual Therapy Certified (MTC) through the University of St. Augustine's post-professional advanced certification program 2004, Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist (COMT) through the Maitland Australian Physiotherapy Approach, 2016, and a Certified Mulligan Practitioner (CMP) through the Mulligan Concept 2017. John is triple certified with 155 hours of training as a Dry Needling Specialist. John is certified as a Myofascial Trigger Point Therapist/Dry Needling (CMTPT/DN) through Myopain Seminars and proudly part of the first certification class in Florida allowing him to practice under Florida state law since 2020. He has advanced training in dry needling and is the only Functional Fascial Therapeutics practitioner (FFTp) in Florida and one of less than 50 practitioners in the country, 2021. This is a unique form of painless subcutaneous needling for treatment of pain and muscle dysfunction. John has also Certified through the American Academy of Manipulative therapy with an emphasis on electrical dry needling as a Cert. DN, 2023. This combination of dry needling techniques offers his patients advanced specialized eclectic treatment approach for unsurpassed outcomes.

John is a graduate of New Paltz College with a Bachelor of Business Administration and Accounting in 1986. He began his career in physical therapy at Stony Brook University with a Bachelor of Physical Therapy, Summa Cum Laude 1997, and then the University of St Augustine for Health Sciences with a Doctorate of Physical Therapy with highest honors 4.0, 2008. John is the only credentialed Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist (COMT) Maitland Approach, Certified Mulligan Practitioner (CMP), CMTPT/DN and FFTp in South Florida. He is IASTM Certified (Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization) through Rock Tape.

John is proudly the official team physical therapist of the ECHL Florida Everblades professional ice hockey team 2017 to present for 8 seasons and is a 3x Back to Back to Back Kelly Cup Champion with the Florida Everblades 2022, 2023 and 2024 3 Peat. This professional team experience includes pre-game treatments, emergency medical intervention with the team physicians and ATC, in game and post-game treatments and player rehabilitation. This experience with elite professional athletes further enhances John's depth of experience and strong skill set. This unique experience opens new perspectives in acute treatment, injury assessment and management, accurately assessing recover time frames and getting players successfully back to play timely and at the highest level. This experience is a huge asset that carries over to the clinical setting for all of his patients to receive the same level of advanced care.

Dr. Taylor Sterling received an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts Degree in Exercise Science from Ave Maria University 2016. Taylor was a member of the Ave Maria University Women’s Softball Team. She went on to attend Briar Cliff University to attain her Doctorate in Physical Therapy 2020.

Prior to PT school Taylor practiced as a personal trainer credentialed through NASM where she studied exercise prescription and injury prevention. After working with clients in the fitness business she wanted to take this knowledge and advance her learning to work in health care and rehabilitation as a physical therapist.

Upon graduating as a Doctor of Physical Therapy Taylor worked for one year in Iowa in outpatient setting before moving to Southwest Florida. She joined NNPT in 2021, secondary to her desire to practice orthopedics and manual therapy. She sought mentorship working with Dr. Pierce following his passion for manual therapy to learn advanced skills in orthopedics and manual therapy through the Maitland, Paris and Mulligan concepts. Taylor has begun her post graduate manual therapy training with Maitland Australia to work toward her COMT certification.

Through NNPT Taylor has had the opportunity to attend games to observe and intern with Dr. Pierce and the Florida Everblades Sports Medicine Team.

We are proud to have Dr. Sterling as part of NNPT. She brings caring, kindness and compassion with a passion to help her patients with the highest level of physical therapy. She is enthusiastic and is driven to be a lifelong learner to develop the highest level of care for her patients.