Anna Charny was born in Moscow. Her father was a noted mathematician who worked in the Soviet space program and her mother was an engineer. When she and her parents were denied permission to leave the Soviet Union in 1978, they became part of a growing refusenik community in Moscow. They had no idea that nearly ten years would pass before they would finally be granted exit visas. During those years, Anna and her parents worked with various Jewish organizations that advocated for and provided economic support to refuseniks. After Charny, her husband, and their oldest child finally arrived in the US, she continued to advocate for other refuseniks, including her parents. She also completed her education by earning a PhD from MIT. She later founded and served as managing director of the Russian School of Mathematics-MetroWest.