Dr. Tanaka is a first-generation college student. She earned a BA in Biology and Secondary Education from Geneva College and taught at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago before attending the University of Illinois Urbana where she earned a PhD in Physiology. She did a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. At Penn, she became a Research Assistant Professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics focusing on voltage-gated sodium channels. In 2000, she joined the Biology Department at Temple University where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses and continued her research in cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) ion channels. Collaborations with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine led to a molecular understanding of the loss of day vision in dogs due to naturally occurring mutations in the cone photoreceptor CNG channel and to successful gene therapy. Throughout her career, she has worked to promote women and underrepresented students in the sciences. From 2009-2019, she directed an NIH MARC (Maximizing Access to Research Careers) program at Temple to promote diversity in the biomedical sciences. She became a Professor Emeritus at Temple and moved to Yale in 2020 where she joined the Science and QR team part-time.  In addition to her work at Yale, she hopes to develop basic science classes for incarcerated students while in New Haven.