Valerie Van Kooten has an extensive career in writing communications. She graduated from Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and worked in public relations for Pella Corporation.
For 25 years, Valerie taught technical writing at Central College in Pella, Iowa, while writing for many of America’s largest companies as a freelance writer. Some of these included Bank of America, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Xerox, WestBank, the Des Moines Register, The Iowan, Our Iowa, and many others.
In 2012 she transitioned into a grant writing position at Central College and followed this with seven years as Executive Director at Pella Historical Museums, where she wrote numerous grants. In the past 10 years, she has written grants that resulted in $7.3 million.
In February 2022, Valerie received the Grant Professionals Certification (GPC), an honor awarded to only 450 grant writers in the United States. The certification endorses the highest standards for the writer’s knowledge of the grant field, best practices, and ethical considerations.