AFBA Announces Appointment of New Board Members Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, MPD (Ret.) and Brigadier General Allyson R. Solomon, USAF (Ret.)

New directors bring extensive experience related to the Association’s membership cohorts

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Armed Forces Benefit Association (AFBA) announced today the appointment of two new members to its Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2022.

“We are pleased to welcome former Washington D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier and Brigadier General Allyson Solomon to the AFBA Board of Directors. Their extensive experience in the first responder and National Guard markets, respectively, will help guide our enterprise as we can continue to protect future generations of servicemembers and first responders,” said General Ed Eberhart, USAF (Ret.), Chair of AFBA and its affiliate, 5Star Life Insurance Company.

General Larry O. Spencer, USAF (Ret.) President of AFBA and 5Star Life, added, “Having diversity of backgrounds, experience, and perspective on the Board is critical as we continue to fulfill our mission – to serve those who serve this great nation.”

Before joining the National Football League in 2016 as Senior Vice President and Chief of Security, Cathy L. Lanier spent her 26-year law enforcement career with the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, beginning in 1990. Much of her career was in uniformed patrol, where she served as Commander of the Fourth District, one of the largest and most diverse residential districts in the city. She also served as the Commanding Officer of the Department's Major Narcotics Branch, Vehicular Homicide Units, and the Special Operations Division, where she is credited with creating the Department’s Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism Bureau. Named to the top post in 2007, her strategies are credited with reducing violent crime in Washington DC.

Brig. Gen. Allyson R. Solomon, USAF (Ret.) is a former Assistant Adjutant General of the Maryland National Guard. Since enlisting in the Maryland Air National Guard over thirty years ago, she has risen through the ranks and broken barriers. Gen. Solomon has served as the first female Colonel, the first female and African American Brigadier General, and the first female and African American Assistant Adjutant General in the Maryland Air National Guard. Since 2015, she has served as President of the National Guard Youth Foundation whose mission is to work with at-risk youth providing them with the values, life skills, education, and self-discipline necessary to succeed in life.

About Armed Forces Benefit Association

With the support of the General of the Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Armed Forces Benefit Association (AFBA) was established in 1947 in the basement of the Pentagon to ease the strain on military members and their families who, at the time, could not purchase life insurance that would pay a death benefit if the member was killed in combat. Today, headquartered in Alexandria, VA, AFBA continues to honor its mission, in war and peace, promoting the welfare of its members by providing survivor and other benefits to those who serve this great nation, including members of the uniformed services, first responders, government employees, and their families. AFBA has more than 535,000 members with $40 billion of death benefits in force and has paid nearly $2 billion of death benefits since inception. AFBA death benefits are primarily underwritten by its affiliate, 5Star Life Insurance Company (a Lincoln, Nebraska domiciled company).