Mitra Khalesi received her BSc in chemistry from Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. She immigrated to the United States and started her PhD studies in 2002 by joining J. W. Louda’s research group at Florida Atlantic University, where she graduated in 2007.

Her dissertation research focused on hemisynthesis and characterization of cyclopheophorbides and resulted in successful hemisynthesis of novel 132, 173 - mesocyclopheophorbide-a-enol. Her research was published in Tetrahedron Letters (2011), 52, pp. 1078-1081(Khalesi, M. M. and Louda, J. W., Hemisynthesis of 132, 173- cyclomesopheophorbide-a-enol).

Part of her achievements, the successful purification of cyclopheophorbides, was published in the Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies (2007), 30, 1361-1369 (Polystyrene-Divinylbenzene (PS-DVB), a mild stationary phase for the chromatographic purification of the unstable 132, 173 - cyclopheophorbide a enol).

Mitra started her career as a visiting instructor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida Atlantic University. She then moved to Toronto and joined Sheridan College in January 2010, where she teaches applied and organic chemistry to first- and second-year students in the chemical sciences program.