Staff Profiles
Jane Brownlee
Professional: Jane Brownlee is the Manager and founder of JobCare Occupational Health Services. She has been in nursing for the past 24 years, with the last 13 years focused in occupational health. She is a Board Certified Occupational Health Nurse and Legal Nurse Consultant with additional certifications in NIOSH approved Spirometry, Occupational Hearing Conservationist (COHC), and Federal Drug Testing. Jane has an extensive background in workers’ compensation programming, case management, and regulatory agency compliance. Prior to occupational health, her focus was in critical care. She serves on the MN Association of Occupational Health Nurses (MAOHN) Board and is a past President of the organization.
Education: A.S. Degree in Nursing from Normandale College; Diploma in Paralegal Studies/Legal Nurse Consulting from Kaplan College; working toward a Business Administration degree.
Why do you love your job? I enjoy working in occupational health with the diverse opportunities it allows. The growth and development of JobCare over the years has been an exciting and rewarding experience. I have the opportunity to work with a dynamic group of professionals to meet the health and safety needs of our local business and industry and their employees.
First job: Waitress
Melissa Milkovich
Professional: Melissa Milkovich is a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner and has been with JobCare for the past two-and-a-half years. Melissa has been a nurse practitioner for four years and prior to becoming a nurse practitioner, she worked as a registered nurse for four years in various areas of health care including the following: medical/surgical, pediatrics, neonatal, and women’s health. In addition to working in JobCare, Melissa is an Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Life Support, and Basic Life Support instructor and enjoys teaching classes in these areas, when able.
Education: Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Bemidji State University and her Master of Arts degree as Nurse Practitioner is from the College of St. Scholastica. Melissa is currently continuing her education at the College of St. Scholastica working on her doctorate degree as a Nurse Practitioner.
Why do you love your job? I enjoy working in JobCare, as occupational medicine is a preventive health care field and I enjoy helping people to achieve wellness before illness sets in. I also enjoy working in JobCare as I enjoy working with businesses.
First job: If you exclude babysitting, cleaning cabins for a resort.
Lori Manney
Professional: Lori Manney has been a Registered Nurse with JobCare for the past four years and carries many additional certifications in specialized areas including: NIOSH approved Spirometry, Occupational Hearing Conservationist (COHC), Federal Drug Testing and Breath Alcohol Testing. She has been an RN for the past 11 years and has worked in Pediatrics, Medical/Surgical and Primary Care environments. Most of Lori’s work experience throughout her life has been involved in health care. She is a basic Life Support instructor for Health Care Providers and provides Heart Saver and First Aid instruction for companies in our community and their employees.
Education: RN degree from Hibbing Community College. Lori is also currently working toward completing her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing.
Why do you love your job? I enjoy working in JobCare as an Occupational Health Nurse because it gives me the opportunity to provide education, and the tools to promote a healthy lifestyle for many different people in many different environments. I love working with my coworkers because they are a high functioning team that works hard to provide the best optimal health care and services to our clients and businesses in the community.
First job: A waitress
Steve Perunovich
Professional: Steve Perunovich is an RN and is responsible for providing a variety of services including: respirator fit testing, audiometric testing, drug testing, health screenings and assessments. He enjoys educating customers/employees on health related issues such as hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol, just to name a few. Steve also carries many additional certifications in specialized areas including: NIOSH approved Spirometry, Occupational Hearing Conservationist (COHC), Basic Life Support and First Aid instructor. Steve is a retired firefighter/paramedic from the city of Hibbing where he worked for over 22 years before joining the JobCare Team.
Education: RN degree from Hibbing Community College.
Why do you love your job? I like my job because I work with a team of highly motivated professionals who strive to provide a high level of customer service. My job also allows me to meet people from a variety of occupations and industries such as mining, city employees, health care and fire and ambulance departments.
First job: Paperboy
Mandy Giffin
Professional: Mandy Giffin is a Registered Nurse with JobCare and carries many additional certifications in specialized areas including: NIOSH approved Spirometry, Occupational Hearing Conservationist (COHC), Federal Drug Testing, Public Health Nurse and American Heart Basic Life Support instructor. Prior to joining the JobCare team, Mandy has worked as an RN for the past six years in a variety of areas including: Medical/Surgical, Pediatrics, Surgery and Public Health. Mandy has also been a Nationally Registered EMT for 15 years and has volunteered as a firefighter and first responder in her local community. She actively serves as an Air Force Captain in the MN Air National Guard with 16 years under her belt, as well as a nurse at the 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth, MN.
Education: Bachelor of Art in Nursing from the College of St. Scholastica.
Why do you love your job? I enjoy working in JobCare because I get many opportunities to meet new people and promote wellness through preventative health assessments.
First job: A lifeguard and water aerobics instructor
DeAnn Zimmer
Professional: DeAnn Zimmer has been an Occupational Therapist with Fairview UMC-M for more than 4 ½ years. Her position within JobCare Occupational Health Services has significantly grown in the last two years. DeAnn provides a wide array of services including: pre-employment screens, functional capacity evaluations for return to work job match services and disability claims, functional job analysis, ergonomic assessments and health dynamic fitness screens. She also presents injury prevention programs and works with conditioning clients. As an Occupational Therapist DeAnn also has experience working with geriatrics, long-term care, cardiac rehabilitation, acute hospital care, home care, and industrial rehabilitation.
Education: B.S. in Corporate and Community Fitness from North Dakota State University. With this degree DeAnn had work experience in a hospital based sports medicine program and enjoyed working with healthy adults and athletes. She later continued her education and received an M.A. degree from the College of Saint Catherine in Occupational Therapy.
Why do you love your job? What I enjoy about being an Occupational Therapist is facilitating my clients to make positive changes in their home /work environments and lifestyles for a healthier, safer and more productive way of life.
First job: Other than babysitting, working at Fuddruckers in the bakery.
Diana Thornton
Professional: Diana Thornton provides administrative support to the entire JobCare team. Her support covers a broad range including membership services, scheduling, database management, billing, conference coordination and whatever else needs to be done! Diana has been working in JobCare for the past 11 years, near inception, and has been instrumental in the growth of the department as a whole.
Education: Junior College.
Why do you love your job? I love my colleagues at JobCare and the camaraderie in the office that has developed throughout the years. I also enjoy being in a dynamic position allowing me to utilize a variety of skills.
First job: Administrative Assistant at a marketing agency.
Andy Verant
Professional: Andy Verant is a Registered Nurse. He carries many additional certifications in specialized areas including: NIOSH approved Spirometry, Occupational Hearing Conservationist (COHC) and Federal Drug Screen Collector. Andy has worked as a Registered Nurse for the past 7 years and brings his background nursing experiences in critical care, acute care, long-term care and disability case management. He recently finished his Wellness Coaching Certification and can provide wellness coaching for any Fairview Range employees which allows him to use his previous work experience in counseling. Andy is acting as the current Chair of the Green Team at Fairview Range and has been working toward building a more sustainable planet.
Education: RN degree from Hibbing Community College and Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Psychology from St. Cloud State University.
Why do you love your job? I love working for JobCare because I get to wear many hats and work in so many environments that each day is a challenge and keeps it fun and interesting for me.
First job: House painter with his dad
Patty Jance
Professional: Patty Jance provides administrative support to the entire JobCare team; however, her primary focus and responsibilities support JobCare’s internal Fairview employee based health and wellness services. Her support covers a broad range of duties including scheduling and assisting in organizing all internal employee health and wellness programs, filing workman’s comp claims, ordering of supplies and equipment and much more. Patty has been an employee within the Fairview system for the past 10 years and joined the JobCare department 5 years ago. Prior to joining the JobCare team, Patty worked in admitting and staffing within the Fairview system.
Education: AAS degree
Why do you love your job? I love working within the Fairview community. It’s a joy to work in the JobCare department; it has allowed me the opportunity to meet and develop relationships with my wonderful JobCare coworkers and other employees within Fairview. I like working in a position that helps others to live a healthy lifestyle.
First job: Secretary/receptionist/ purchasing agent at a fabrication business.
Amber Sweeney
Professional: As Account Executive, Amber Sweeney is responsible for ensuring effective, branded marketing communications including the company website and print/electronic communication. Her responsibilities also include working with current customers, as well as other local employers in order to learn about their workplace health and safety practices, problems and how JobCare can help. She has worked in marketing and sales within the health care industry for several years. The majority of her experience has been in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities within the central Florida market. Amber is originally from Hibbing, MN, and has recently relocated back to the area and is fairly new to the JobCare Team.
Education: Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Advertising and Public Relations from Minnesota State University-Moorhead.
Why do you love your job? I enjoy building relationships with customers. I love really getting to know them and building trust so I spend time meeting face-to-face to understand their problems and challenges. I also enjoy the diversity of the companies we work with and the services we provide which keeps things interesting and makes every day different from the day before.
First job: Excluding babysitting, a waitress. Amber also worked at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom through their College Program Internship immediately after college graduation.
