Miri Birk grew up in the small town of Clifton, Virginia. She attended the University of Virginia where she received degrees in History and English Literature, as well as a minor in Jewish Studies. She then went on to study for a year at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, Israel. Her journey of Jewish study then resumed in Brooklyn, New York where she and her husband, Rabbi Dovid, lived for two years. Miri worked as for the Jewish Learning Institute in Brooklyn where she procured and edited videos on various topics Jewish education for the website TorahCafe.com. In 2008, the Birks moved to Ithaca, NY to join Rabbi Eli and Rebbitzen Chana Silberstein in their work on campus at Cornell.