Rita C. Meyer (born 1951) is an American politician who served as

Wyoming State Auditor The Wyoming State Auditor is a statewide elected office in Wyoming and serves as the chief comptroller and payroll officer. The Auditor protects public money by ensuring that it is properly accounted for in the most efficient and cost effective me ...

from 2007 to 2011. Instead of seeking a second term as auditor in 2010, Meyer ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in the 2010 Wyoming gubernatorial election. She lost by approximately seven hundred votes to fellow

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Matt Mead Matthew Hansen Mead (born March 11, 1962) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 32nd Governor of Wyoming from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the United States Attorney for the D ...

in the primary election held on August 17, 2010.

Early life and education

Meyer lived near Johnstown in Brown County in northern

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

. In 1977, the family moved to Centennial, Wyoming. Meyer attended the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

and holds an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from Regis University in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and a Master's in National Resource Strategy from

National Defense University The National Defense University (NDU) is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level education, training, and professional development of national security leaders. As ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Professional career

From 1998 to 2002, Meyer was the Chief of Staff to Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer. She also served on the

Board of Trustees and as head of the Service Academy Nomination Committee for Senator

Malcolm Wallop Malcolm Wallop (February 27, 1933 – September 14, 2011) was an American rancher and politician. He served as a United States Senator from Wyoming from 1977 to 1995. He was a member of the Republican Party. Early years Wallop was born in New Yo ...

Military career

Meyer served for more than twenty-three years as an enlisted airwoman and officer in the Wyoming Air National Guard, having attained the rank of full colonel in July 2004. She is a combat veteran of both

Desert Storm The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

and Operation Enduring Freedom. Her final overseas assignment was as a Mission Support Group Commander at

Bagram Airfield Bagram Airfield-BAF, also known as Bagram Air Base , is located southeast of Charikar in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan. It is under the Afghan Ministry of Defense. Sitting on the site of the ancient Bagram at an elevation of above sea lev ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. She retired from the military in November 2007. She also served as an admissions liaison officer to the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and U ...

and the

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in al ...

Awards and recognition

Meyer has received the award of Outstanding Alumnus from both the University of Wyoming College of Business and the College of Education,UW Distinguished Alumni the Legion of Merit, the Order of the Bayonet, and the Order of St. Barbara.

Personal life

Meyer was married to Dr. Charles Meyer, a native of Rawlins, Wyoming, from 1977 until his death in 2011. The couple had one son, Charles Stoddard Meyer, daughter-in-law, Jennifer, and grandchildren, Augusta Grace and John Charles Meyer of Ellicott City, MD. Meyer married Stephen Joseph Miller of Cheyenne in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Rita 1951 births Living people United States Army personnel of the Gulf War United States Army personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Recipients of the Legion of Merit Regis University alumni State Auditors of Wyoming University of Wyoming alumni Wyoming Republicans People from Brown County, Nebraska Politicians from Cheyenne, Wyoming Female officers of the United States Air Force Women in the Iraq War National Guard (United States) colonels Wyoming National Guard personnel Women in Wyoming politics 21st-century American women