Acker calls Omaha, Nebraska her home. She was raised in a home with a great love and appreciation or music. Her aunt was a college professor of piano and pipe organ. Acker studied piano, organ and music theory with Ruth Music Giger and piano with Harold Payne at UNO. She had extensive training in Suzuki Piano and later became a certified Kindermusic teacher. She took piano pedagogy classes with Dr. James Johnson, UNO, and Jackson Berkey of Mannheim Steamroller.

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Acker taught in Omaha for 40 years and she is now teachng in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.

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Acker has served as an adjudicator for regional piano contests for the National Guild of PInao Teachers, Nebraska MTA, Iowa MTA, South Dakota MTA, Nebraska Summer Music Olympics, Nebraska FMC, Iowa FMC and PMTA in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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She is the president of the Milwaukee Area Pinao Teachers Association and past president of the Omaha Music Teachers Association and the Nebraska Federation of Music Clubs. She has served on the boards of the Nebraska Music Teachers Association, the Nebraska and the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Nebraska Summer Music Olympics.  

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Acker has served as guest lecturer at the State Convention of the SD Music Teachers Association and the Piano Pedagogy classes at UNO. She is past National Chair for the NFMC Junior Composers Contest.  She is a Certified Teacher of Piano by the American College of Musicians and was made an Honorary Member of the Tri-M Society by Omaha Central High School. Acker was honored by the NFMC as being a Life Member of the National Federation of Music Clubs.