Making a Career of Counseling

His family had some reservations about him studying psychology. “They saw it as a fringe career path – one that was reserved ‘for others,’” James Zanker '01 said.

He worked and paid for all of his schooling without having to take out any student loans. In addition to earning a bachelor’s in psychology from UNCW, he received a Master of Arts Service Agency Counseling Degree from UNC Pembroke and is now the proud owner of Zanker Counseling Services, located in downtown Wilmington, NC.


“I had known for my entire cognizant life that I was talented at subjects related to human services and psychology,” he said. “I chose UNCW because of its fine reputation, the fact that is was part of the reputable UNC system and because of UNCW’s excellent psychology department.”

While at UNCW, he was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society and Psi Chi Psychology National Honor Society. He also served as a Student Ambassador and was a member of the UNCW Crew Team.

A licensed professional counselor, nationally certified counselor and licensed clinical addiction specialist, Zanker loves what he is able to give others through mental health counseling, life coaching or music arts therapy through a related business, Zanker Music Arts Therapy.

“They are all a continual thrill for me and I am working on improving and increasing the level of services that I can provide within each format,” he says.


Read more at We Are UNCW.

Alumni in the News

• Chris Cooprider '13, former UNCW tennis standout, won his first professional title at the Turkey F27 Futures Double Championship in Istanbul, Turkey. 
• Logan Hendricks '06 and Kyle Clark '07, made a name for themselves in the film industry during the Big Sky Film Festival in Montana with their documentary, Love at a Certain Age. 
• Dave McKenna '03, former baseball player, was named the new Carrollton Central High School softball coach in Carrollton, Georgia. 
• Deborah Brasic '94 joined Cape Fear Hospice & LifeCareCenter as a nurse practitioner. 
• Jenni Harris '91, assistant to the chancellor for community partnerships at UNCW, has been elected to the board of Leadership North Carolina. 
• Kayla Herring '13 accepted a job as enrollment specialist with Hill, Chesson & Woody (HCW), a health and welfare benefits brokerage and consulting firm in Durham, NC. 

Alumni News & Notes

• John R. Bell, IV '01 was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives and is serving in his first term in House District 10.
• Meredith Causey '09, who works as a nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, received the Exceptional Person Award.
• Nancy Carter '82 recently had her landscape and abstract paintings featured in New Elements Gallery in Wilmington.
• Michael Bass '13 and Justin Livengood '13 have been drafted by the San Diego Padres; making 89 Seahawks to play professional baseball since 1960. 
  
• Corey Heitz '99 is one of 20 individuals nationwide selected to be an AAMC MedEdPortal Faculty Mentor and received the 2013 Carilion Clinic/Virginia Tech Carilion Emergency Medicine Residency Scholar of the Year award.
• Brittany Cox '10 has appeared in the recent Microsoft commercial and has been cast in "A Bad Summer for Tomatoes" filming in Kingston, WA this summer. 
• Jessica Maher '01 is the special assistant to the president for legislative affairs and responsible for promoting the president's agenda in the U.S. Senate. She focuses on coordinating with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources, the Environment and Public Works, the Agriculture and Indian Affairs committees. 
• Koyah Rivera '00 was recently promoted to the Graduate Registrar/Graduate Student Support Services Manager at the UNC School of Dentistry and has been accepted into the PhD program in Leadership Studies at NC A&T State University which she will begin in the fall. 
• Jane Howard Crutchfield '03 started a raw food truck and catering business, Triangle Raw Foods, with her partner Matthew Daniels in 2011. They have plans to open a raw, organic, vegan cafe in Durham.

Have some news you would like to share? Send an email to classnotes@uncw.edu with your name, graduation year(s) and contact information and we'll include it in future blog posts!