From left to right: Independence associate and featured veteran Lena Anderson, Women Veterans Center Coordinator Anna Stormer, Independence Blue Cross Foundation President Lorina Marshall-Blake, and Independence associate and featured veteran Mattie Johnson.
The Independence Blue Cross Foundation (Foundation) and the Women Veterans Center celebrated the service, strength and diversity of women veterans in the Greater Philadelphia area at the “I Am Not Invisible” Reception at Independence LIVE.
The event featured the portraits and stories of 32 women veterans representing all eras, branches of service, ranges of physical mobility, ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations. The exhibit is designed to showcase the diversity of this important, yet often overlooked and underserved, part of the veteran community. Independence associates and veterans Lena Anderson and Mattie Johnson were among those spotlighted in the gallery.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 10 percent of veterans are women and over 60,000 those women live in Pennsylvania. In 2014, the Veteran’s Multi-Service Center created the Women’s Center to address the growing and unique needs of women veterans in the region. The center provides help with housing, benefits counseling, job development training and, in partnership with the Foundation through its Building Healthier Communities program, wellness programs for women veterans and their families.
