Meet Our Medical Staff - Jaylene Zanker, P.A.-C

Jaylene Zanker, P.A.-C, joined the staff in 2010 after receiving her masters of Physician Assistant from Union College in Lincoln, NE. She is a member of the American Academy of PA, Iowa PA society, Association of Family Practice PA, as well as other scientific organizations, and is board certified.

Jaylene grew up on a farm near Ashland, NE with four sisters and attended school in Mead. In high school, she enjoyed science and she was interested in medicine, so she went off to UN-L to get an undergraduate degree in Science. After finishing her BS degree, she took a job with Garst Seed Company doing DNA fingerprinting in hybrid corn.

Wanting to further her education and expand her career options, Jaylene applied to and was accepted to the Biomedical Sciences PhD program at Wright State University in Ohio. Upon graduation, she accepted a position at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, focusing on Alzheimer's, stroke, migraine, and Parkinson's disease research. Her research results were published in distinguished scientific journals. Jaylene later returned to Nebraska to teach and conduct research at UNMC in Omaha. There she wrote research grants, conducted research, and taught Radiology physics, which covers topics such as MRI and X-Ray physics. After 15 years of conducting research, writing grants and papers, and fighting for grant money, she made the decision to go back to school to become a physician assistant. Jaylene was always interested in medicine and wanted her next job to focus more directly with patient care. She received her master's degree in physician assistant at Union college in Lincoln, NE, where she graduated with honors.

In 2005 she met Charlie Zanker of Hamburg whom she later married. Together they planned their dream home and enjoy restoring and altering cars/trucks, a process sometimes referred to as "rat rodding." To be honest, Jaylene says that Charlie does all the work on the cars with the help of Matthew, Charlie's son, and she just offers design suggestions. She did, however; have considerable input into their new home, which they hope to move into soon. Charlie wanted to build a home that was unique, so they researched alternative structures and decided on their current design, a hexa-decagon or 16-sided structure. Jaylene worked on the room placement and internal design plan while Charlie offered suggestions and worked on the structural components. Assisting the Zankers was Nathan Metz, an architect with local ties to Hamburg. The construction of their home was spurred on and complicated by the 2011 flood which took the home they had been living in, located South of Hamburg on the "island."

Jaylene comments that although she is a transplant, people really make her feel welcome here. Being a rural family-practice PA allows her to utilize the skills she has learned to treat patients with anything from broken bones to heart disease and hypertension. The most enjoyable part of her work is getting to know her patients, their life interests, and their health issues. She gets excited when she hears the name of one of her patients or their family members being recognized on the local radio station or sees them walking by in a local parade. "It is great being part of a rural community." Notes Zanker.