Brigadier General (Retired) Maritza “Ritz” Ryan retired from the U.S. Army in December 2015, and quickly transitioned her considerable talents to a number of professional and philanthropic endeavors, including Catalyzer Leadership. She began facilitating programs with us in 2016.A member of the West Point Class of 1982 – the third class to include women – she was commissioned into the Field Artillery and assigned to the 1st Armored Division Artillery in Nuremberg, West Germany. Selected for an Army scholarship under the Judge Advocate General’s Funded Legal Education Program, General Ryan received her Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt Law School, Order of the Coif, in 1988. She holds a Master of Laws in Military Law from the Army Judge Advocate General’s School and a Master of Arts in National Security & Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.
General Ryan is the first woman USMA graduate and first Hispanic to be selected as an Academic Department Head (Department of Law) in the history of West Point.
