Irina was born and grew up in Chernovtsy, Ukraine. She always loved learning and did very well in her schooling. Due to the communist regime's persecution of those who refused to renounce their faith, higher education options were very limited for her in Ukraine. At the age of 26, Irina immigrated to the United States with her husband, two boys and a girl that would be born a few weeks after her family's arrival in the U.S.

As a recent immigrant, Irina worked jobs that did not require strong language skills her first few years in the country. After a few years, she was able to start a data entry clerk position at a large banking corporation. During her time there, Irina decided to pursue higher education while growing her career. She was able to obtain both her Bachelors and Masters in Accounting, while working full-time and having a family.

Irina has had an extensive work history for others as well as for her own business. Since 2006, Irina has had experience preparing individual and business tax returns, providing bookkeeping/payroll services, and other consulting services. She has also worked in various accounting positions at companies and most recently was a Senior Regulatory Auditor for the Missouri Department of Revenue specializing in Sales, Use, and Withholding tax audits.

Irina is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and has been part of numerous process improvement projects at various points in her career. She enjoys learning new software and has extensive experience with QuickBooks and a number of applications used for tax preparation.

Irina has been married to her husband, Ivan, since 1987. She has four adult children and currently has five grandchildren. She has a black lab, Gracie, who recently gave birth to five puppies. Irina enjoys spending her time outside of work volunteering at her church and spending time with her family.