Van Horn taught school for ten years as a young woman, and was Montana state supervisor of home economics while she was teaching at Montana State University. She also taught in Oakland, California, and in a summer program at Colorado State College.[4] She joined the United States Office of Education as a program specialist in home economics education in 1934.[5]
In 1938, Van Horn testified before a House hearing on funding for federal funding for home economics programs.[6] She served on the Future Homemakers of America advisory board for its first seven years.[3][7][8] From 1948 to 1949, she was president of the D.C. Home Economics Association. In 1951, she was honored by the Nevada Home Economics Association.[9] In 1949, she attended the Seventh International Congress on Home Economics, held in Stockholm.[10] In 1953, she attended the Eighth International Congress on Home Economics, held in Edinburgh. In 1958, she resigned from the Office of Education to serve as chief advisor on a Ford Foundation and Oklahoma State University project to develop college curricula for home economics for schools and universities in Pakistan.[11][12] She returned to the Office of Education from 1961 to 1963, as a specialist in women's employment and vocational training.[2][13][14] In 1965, she consulted with the University of Nebraska's school of home economics.[15]
Homemaking Education Program for Adults (1938, with Mary Stuart Lyle)[16]
The teaching of certain aspects of child development in the homemaking program in the secondary school: a compilation of materials from states (1938, compiler)[17]
The teaching of certain aspects of child development in the homemaking program in the secondary school: a complilation of materials from states (1939, compiler)[18]
Household Employment Problems: A Handbook for Round-table Discussions Among Household Employers (1939)[19]