Annika has had a passion for working with children from the time she was very young. She started off babysitting in her neighborhood and became a "second mom" to the younger sister who was born when Annika was 18.
Annika grew up in a small town in Germany called Rottenburg, where she attended a Waldorf School from Kindergarten through high school. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the Eberhard Karl’s University Tuebingen in Educational Sciences, with a minor in psychology and sociology. During college, Annika worked at a youth center as part of a multidisciplinary team.
She had met her husband Wes right before college and moved to the United States shortly after graduation. Annika's first teaching job in the U.S. was at a private preschool in Westminster, Maryland, called Little People’s Place. Due to her husband’s job, they moved to the Eastern Shore in 2016 and she has been employed as a teacher in the 3's program at Manor Discovery Center in Easton ever since.
Annika and Wes live on a farm in Vienna with their two dogs and some chickens. She enjoys running, painting, kayaking, cooking, and traveling, primarily back to Germany to visit family and friends.