General Mutter served for over 31 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. As the first woman in the Marines to be promoted to both major general and lieutenant general, her military career has made history. After she graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in mathematics education, she was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. In the early 1990s as a brigadier general, she was the first woman of general/flag rank to command a major deployable tactical command, the 3rd Force Service Support Group (now Marine Logistics Group) in Okinawa, Japan. In 1994 she became the first woman major general in the Corps and the senior woman on active duty in the Armed Forces. She went on in 1996 to become the first woman in any of the services to be nominated by the President of the United States for three stars. At that time she was the only woman among 107 male three-star military officers in the nation. Since transitioning to civilian life in 1999, Mutter has continued to work for Veterans and serve as a role model. She led the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and was the president of the Women Marines Association. She was also inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017.

General Mutter has 13-years of experience in military research, development and acquisition, as well as significant experience in financial management, logistics, personnel administration, and equal opportunity work. General Mutter serves or has served on the American Battle Monuments Commission, the National Advisory Council of The Alliance for National Defense, on the Advisory Board of the Indiana Council on World Affairs, and on the Indiana State War Memorials Commission.

General Mutter has considerable private sector experience as well, having served as consultant for IBM (NYSE:IBM), Raytheon Co. (NYSE:RTN), and Revision Eyewear. She earned two masters degrees, from Salve Regina University and from the Naval War College, and has been awarded two honorary doctorate degrees as well.