She is a graduate in English and Russian from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. On her first job as a reporter in the English Section of Radio Prague, she interviewed among others American composer Aaron Copeland and the American opera singer Robert Christesen, whom she later married. They first lived in Germany where Mirka worked as an English and Russian high school and college teacher. After relocating to the USA in 1985, Mirka taught English and later worked as the Academically Gifted Coordinator at several middle- and high schools in the Raleigh area. She received a number of teacher recognitions in character- and the academically gifted-education, and in 2016 she became a recipient of the prestigious NC Order of the Long Leaf Pine award. Her first book was Character Kaleidoscope: A Practical, Standards-Based Resource Guide for Character Development.