Dent proud of staff member named to Governor’s Advisory Council on Veterans Services

Chrystal Foster, Dent’s veterans outreach coordinator, will chair Subcommittee for Women Veterans

Representative Charlie Dent (PA-15) proudly announced that Chrystal Foster, his Veterans Outreach Coordinator, has been named to serve on a subcommittee to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Veteran Services. Ms. Foster will Chair the Council’s Subcommittee for Women Veterans. Pennsylvania has the seventh highest number of female veterans in any state with 71,289. That’s 7.6 percent of the PA veteran population.

“As Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, I am so proud that Chrystal has been named to serve on the subcommittee,” said Dent. “Chrystal does outstanding work on behalf of veterans every day in my office. She has helped hundreds with medical needs and benefits issues. In her new role she’ll have the ability to help provide crucial guidance to Governor Wolf and the Pennsylvania Depart- ment of Military and Veterans Affairs.”

Ms. Foster served in the United States Marine Corps. She completed three deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Chrystal was in Iraq during the country’s first democratic election after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Part of her duties included helping to keep the polling places safe from potential suicide bombers.

During her third deployment she was part of Team Lioness and detailed to a Combat Outpost near the Syria-Iraq border. There she helped maintain security at border checkpoints.

She was honorably discharged from the USMC as a Staff Sergeant (SSgt) after serving just shy of 11 years as a Marine. She joined Rep. Dent’s District Operations in his Lebanon office as a Wounded Warrior Fellow beginning in 2013. In January 2016 she was hired by Representative Dent to continue on as his Veterans Outreach Coordinator.

Ms. Foster graduated from Temple University Harrisburg in May of this year with a Master’s Degree in Social Work. She majored in Military Counseling. In December, she will be one of the first graduates of a new post graduate certificate program at Temple University Harrisburg for Military Counseling.

For her part, Chrystal is looking forward to assisting veterans through her role on the subcommittee.

“As Chair of the Women Veterans Subcommittee I will lead a team of subject matter experts in identifying the needs, gaps in services and resources available to women veterans across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” she said. “After our initial meeting, I am highly confident that the members selected for this subcommittee will make great progress in supporting the needs of women veterans through a collaborative effort. It is my goal for Pennsylvania to set the highest standards and be the state others look to emulate. I am beyond humbled to have been offered this opportunity.”

“I’m just honored and glad to have her on my staff,” said Dent. “She attacks VA red tape with the ferocity of a Marine and does great work on behalf of the veterans of the 15th District.”