Mrs. VanAken has spent much of her twenty-five year career teaching primary grades...mostly second grade. She served as a Language Arts Reading/Writing Specialists for four of the fifteen years that she taught in the Alief School Independent School District in Sugar Land, Texas. Since living in Redmond, she has worked a year at Ben Rush and a year at Alcott Elementary before opening Einstein Elementary nine years ago.

She enjoys "reading, knitting, gardening, going on long walks with my husband, and having lots of family barbeques are activities that I enjoy during the summer. Since my daughter is a cancer survivor, the one altruistic endeavor near and dear to my heart is supporting the Ronald McDonald House in Seattle."