Major General Mari K. Eder retired from the U.S. Army in May 2013 with 36 years of dedicated service to the nation. A Pennsylvania native, Maj. Gen. Eder grew up in Stoneboro, PA, graduating from Lakeview High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree (Cum Laude, with honors) and a master’s degree in English from Edinboro University (now Penn West) and a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA. She is also a graduate of the advanced program in mass communications at the University of South Carolina and completed the Training with Industry Fellowship Program with Fleishman-Hilliard Public Relations in Washington, DC. Additionally, she is a graduate of senior executive and leadership programs at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Flagler School of Business, the National Defense University, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and at Georgetown University. She received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2014.

Maj. Gen Eder commanded at every level in the Army, from platoon through division level. She was selected for progressively challenging positions culminating in several executive leadership assignments at the highest levels. Her last assignment was as the first Commanding General of the U.S. Army Reserve Joint and Special Troops Support Command, in Salt Lake City, UT. She previously served as the first full-time Deputy Chief of the Army Reserve.

Prior to this assignment, she served on the Department of the Army Staff at the Pentagon as the first full-time Deputy Chief of Public Affairs, during the period of initial operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. She has had additional joint experience, serving with the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, where she was assigned as the Deputy Director of Public Affairs. There she directed theater media relations during Kosovo and at the inception of Operation Enduring Freedom. She served as Chief of Staff for the Reserve Forces Policy Board in OSD (Reserve Affairs) from 2002-2004.

As a civilian executive, she served as the Director of Public Affairs at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. There she built the Center’s strategic plan for marketing communications and taught the role of a free press in democratic societies to government officials from over 36 nations.

In addition to serving as an adjunct professor and lecturer at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the NATO School, Sweden’s International Security Command and at Norway’s military Command and Staff Centre. She has led and spoken at communications conferences in Croatia, Hungary, Georgia, Bulgaria, Italy, and Jordan. Today, Maj. Gen. Eder consults, advises, and speaks frequently at colleges and universities on communications, counter-terror narratives, professional ethics, and leadership topics, including at: Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, St. Edwards University, Syracuse University, The University of Utah, Weber State University, George Mason University, Georgia State University, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, the U.S. Naval War College, and others. In 2006 she was selected as the 28th Annual Vernon C. Schranz Distinguished Lectureship Recipient (Public Relations) at Ball State University in Muncie, IN.

Maj. Gen. Eder has an established record of scholarship, research, and publishing. Her book, Leading the Narrative: The Case for Strategic Communication, is used in a number of university communications courses. She is the author of numerous case studies, book chapters, and articles on ethics, leadership, and strategic communications as well as two books of children’s stories. Her current series of essays titled “The Information Apocalypse” is published online by the U.S. Army War College. Her inspirational book, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line, was published in 2021 and was recognized in 2022 by the Library of Virginia with their People’s Choice Author of the Year Award.  The second book in the series, The Girls Who Fought Crime, was published in 2023.  A third volume, The Girls Who Beat the Odds, is set for publication in January 2026.

In addition, she is a well-known motivational speaker. She was the closing keynote speaker at the Womens Insights in Negotiations (WIN) Global Summit in 2018 and recipient of their 2018 Trailblazer Award. She also spoke at Google’s Global “I Am Remarkable” Week, um. She’s spoken at the National World War II Museum’s International Conference and at the National D-Day Memorial (both on C-Span).  She’s also spoken at college graduations, and at numerous leadership conferences.

She served three tours with the U.S. Army War College Foundation and is now on the Board of the National D-Day Memorial. She was selected by the Secretary of Defense to serve on the Department of Defense Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) in 2024. Maj. Gen. Eder is active in animal rescue, working to support, rescue, foster, and rehome dogs.

Her military awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit (with Oak Leaf Cluster) and the Meritorious Service Medal (with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters.) Maj. Gen. Eder was named an Honorary Member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps in 2011, an honor only accorded to two other individuals previously. In 2017 she was inducted into the Army Public Affairs Hall of Fame and also received the Joe Galloway Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in communication. She was inducted into her high school Hall of Fame in 2018 and is a Distinguished Graduate of Edinboro University of PA. She was named to the Army Women’s Hall of Fame in 2021 and the Department of Defense School of Mass Communications (DINFOS) selected her for their all-services Hall of Fame in 2024.

General Eder holds the Vatican award of the Knight, Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, granted by Pope Benedict XVI. There are about 200 people in the world who hold this knighthood. She was the first woman named the National Trust for Historic Preservation/Historic Hotels of America, Historian of the Year in 2023. The National Society of The Daughters of the American Revolution presented her with their highest award, the DAR Medal of Honor, in 2023. Previous selectees include President Ronald Reagan, First Lady Barbara Bush and General Colin Powell. She also holds the DAR Historian Medal.