Between 2011 and June 2025, Anjo van de Ven served a total of nine years as an alderwoman for the Municipality of Alkmaar. Her portfolio included Culture and Heritage, Spatial Planning, Green Spaces, Real Estate, and Land Affairs.

From 2002 to 2011, she was Chair of the Alkmaar Region Culture Prize, now known as the Victoriefonds Cultuurprijs. Between 2022 and 2023, she briefly served as Chair of the Lindegracht Concerts. Prior to that, Anjo held various board positions in social care, education, and cultural and welfare organizations. She also served as an ambassador for Stichting Het Grote Raam, the organization behind the monumental artwork that has been on display in the Grote Sint Laurenskerk since 2023.

Anjo grew up in the province of North Brabant and studied Dutch Language and Literature in Tilburg and later in Groningen, followed by Educational Sciences with a specialization in Orthopedagogy in Amsterdam. She has lived in Alkmaar since 1981.

Throughout her career, she has worked as director of a women's refuge, as a policy adviser to the Executive Board of a mental healthcare institution, and as a teacher of Dutch language and literature.

Anjo is a passionate lover of culture with broad interests. Raised on the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach, she is also, perhaps partly because of that background, a devoted admirer of Bruce Springsteen, "The Boss", whom she greatly appreciates as both a musician and a socially engaged cultural figure.