 Prior to being elected she worked as director of human resources for the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (""Social insurance bank""), a Dutch quango responsible for administering, among other things, several state benefits, such as the AOW state pension, and the Dutch child benefit payments.In addition she is the Director of COC Nederland (the oldest LGBT rights organisation in the world), and serves as a municipal councilor for Amsterdam-Centrum, a sub-municipality ("deelgemeente") of Amsterdam.Bergkamp studied public administration and political science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.