Before completing a PhD in economics at the Universityof Illinois, Meyer was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Much of herresearch has focused on the agriculture, environment, and institutions of the developingworld, about which she has written numerous papers, books, and reports. Since November 2000, Meyer has focused her research on the history of the rural Midwest, which resulted in her book. Days on the Family Farm, published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2007. She has also published in Agricultural History, summer 2013, the Wisconsin Magazine of History, spring 2016 and the Indiana Magazine of History, spring 2018.