Meet & Our Staff

Dr. Thomas T. Paukert graduated from Tulane University with a B.S. in chemistry. He went on to graduate from UC Berkeley with his Ph.D. in chemistry. In 1976 he received his medical degree from the University of Chicago. He completed his internship in Internal Medicine at USC Medical Center in Los Angeles and continued his medical training, finishing his Nephrology Fellowship at UC San Francisco in 1982. He began practicing medicine in the Napa Valley in 1982. Dr. Paukert is married and has three children. Dr. Paukert specializes in the treatment of hypertension and diabetic control. He has privileges at Queen of the Valley Hospital, St. Helena Hospital and Sonoma Valley Hospital. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology.

Dr. Paukert was recently named to U.S. News & World Reports "Top Doctors" list for 2012 - 2013.

Dr. Steven Tolkan grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and completed an internship and internal medicine residency at the University of Connecticut Medical Center. He completed a fellowship in nephrology with Brown University at Rhode Island Hospital. He is certified by the American Board of lnternal Medicine and the American Board of Nephrology. Dr. Tolkan and his wife, Sylvia Tolkan, have a son named Alex. In his free time, Dr. Tolkan enjoys cooking, swimming,and golf.In addition to the office in Napa, Dr. Tolkan sees nephrology patients at 1261 Travis Blvd. Suite 170 in Fairfield, CA 94533. 707-666-2559.

Judie is a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner with extensive experience in assessing and managing acute and chronic health concerns across the life span. Along with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Nursing, Judie has a PhD in Political Economy with a focus in health care economics and policy which makes her very attentive to patients' concerns about access to and cost of care. 

Judie moved to Napa in 2010 from the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, area where she had worked within a private practice after completing her FNP certification in 1995. Prior to becoming an FNP, Judie taught undergraduate and graduate nursing, and worked as an emergency department nurse. With her long background in education,Judie believes patient education is a most important factor to promoting health in patients. 

Judie grew up in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and has many family members here in the SF Bay Area. She has degrees from the University of Oregon, The University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of Texas at Dallas. Judie is enjoying life here in the Napa Valley, spending time with family, especially grandchildren; and gardening, playing bridge, keeping up with current events, and volunteering with Planned Parenthood of Napa.

Nancy Tamarisk graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles with a B.A. in Psychology. She later attained a B.S.N. from the University of California, San Francisco. Nancy worked in the Bay Area as a critical care nurse before returning to graduate school to earn a M.S.N. from Yale University as a Cardiovascular Clinical Nurse Specialist. Queen of the Valley Hospital hired her as its first Critical Care Clinical Specialist. She developed the hospital's first comprehensive critical care training program for nurses, and was on the start-up team that introduced the cardiac surgery program. Returning to school yet again, she completed the Sonoma State University Family Nurse Practitioner program. She has worked as a Nurse Practitioner at Napa Valley Nephrology and Internal Medicine since 1997. She is married with one son. Her interests include hiking, cross-country skiing, gardening and kayaking. Nancy is board-certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner and she has a special interest in women's health and cardiovascular medicine.

Janice Ankenmann has been a Registered Nurse since 1977, graduating from Indian River Community College and the University of Florida. She moved to Los Angeles and worked as a nurse and nurse manager in the Medical/Respiratory ICU at Cedars Sinai Medical Center for ten years. She then continued her education and obtained a B.S. in nursing from the University of California San Francisco, her Masters in Health Care Administration at St. Mary's College in Moraga and her M.S.N. and F.N.P. at the University of Phoenix in Sacramento (2002).

She has worked at Napa Valley Nephrology and Internal Medicine, part-time, since 2002. In addition, she continues to work part-time in the ICU at Queen of the Valley Hospital where she was the ICU Nursing Director for five years. She is also the program director and part-time professor of the LVN program at Napa Valley College. Janice is married with interests that include gardening, cooking, decorating and spending time with family and friends. Janice is board certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner and maintains her Critical Care Certification and California Teaching Certification.

Sherry earned her BSN from UCSF in 1969. She completed a post-graduate program in maternal-child health to become a maternity nurse practitioner in 1972. She served on the editorial board of The Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing and was published twice in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing.In 1982, Sherry began working alongside her husband, Dr. Thomas Paukert, at his practice that was located onBeard Road in Napa. She started working as a dialysis charge nurse in 2004 and has since learned about nephrology on the job. Sherry is a mother of three and enjoys farming. She is very active in the Napa agricultural community and is a California Certified Poultry Health Inspector and Napa Valley 4-H County Wide Poultry Leader.