Governor Jay Nixon has announced Boone County Treasurer Nicole Galloway will be Missouri’s next state auditor.

Galloway will serve the remainder of the four-year term that began in January. Nixon appointee John Watson has been serving as auditor since February 27 and will resign that role when Galloway is sworn in. He was named interim auditor after the suicide of Tom Schweich at his home in Clayton, February 26.

Nixon named Galloway, a Democrat, to the position despite the fact that no Democrats ran for the office in the 2014 election cycle. Under Missouri law, when a vacancy occurs in the state auditor’s office the governor must immediately appoint an auditor to fulfill the remaining term.

Galloway became Boone County Treasurer in 2011 and was elected to a four-year term in 2012. She received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Missouri in 2008 after graduating in 2004 from the Missouri University of Science and Technology with degrees in Applied Mathematics and Economics. She lives in Columbia with her husband Jon and two sons.

According to the Boone County Treasurer’s Office’s website, Nixon has previously tapped Galloway to serve on the Missouri Technology Corporation to focus on entrepreneurship and attract growing and emerging high-tech companies to Missouri. She has been appointed to the Missouri County Employees’ Retirement Fund’s board of directors by the County Treasurers’ Association and serves on the board of the Heart of Missouri United Way.