Petra is a first generation American. Her mother was German and her father was Bulgarian. She was born in Chicago, but grew up in Dixon, Illinois. She graduated from Illinois State University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in vocal performance. She moved to Durango, Colorado in 1985, and lived there for 40 years. She retired from teaching in May, 2025 and moved back to Normal in August.
While in Durango, Petra served as Executive Director of United Way of Southwest Colorado. During her tenure with United Way, the organization expanded from one county to five counties, tripled its volunteer base, added 3 employees and grew from raising $175,000 annually to $530,000 annually. At 40, she returned to school to get her teaching license. She taught middle school choir and theatre for 16 years in Farmington, New Mexico, where she had 120 choir students and 100 theatre students. During this time, she returned to school and earned a second Master’s Degree in Education. After retiring from the Farmington School District in 2018, she took a job teaching middle school and high school choir in the Durango 9R School District, and began serving as music director for the high school musicals. She has directed 9 to 5, The Little Mermaid, The Addams Family (the musical), Little Shop of Horrors, Mean Girls, Anastasia, Bye Bye Birdie, Urinetown and Hadestown.
Petra is divorced and has two children: Joey (wife Grace), who resides in Denver Colorado with daughter Mathilda and son Stephen, and Jaimie, who lives in Seattle. In her spare time, Petra travels, reads, dances, and gardens