Dr. KIMBERLY ROOP
Guest Columnist
As a U.S. Air Force veteran, I had the privilege of serving with men and women who put personal priorities aside to serve and protect our country.
As I saw first-hand, our service members are trained to do more with less. We make sacrifices and step in front of harm’s way when duty calls and pack up personal belongings on command. We are trained to solve problems, often with few resources, because the mission is critical, and our personal comfort or convenience must take a back seat.
When I was on active duty, we took care of each other like it was our job, because it was. Being stationed away from home put us all in a similar situation. When my husband developed a life-threatening illness, it was my fellow service members who cleaned our house, mowed our lawn, collected our mail – for months. We watched each other’s kids without giving it a second thought. Getting it done was just second nature and there was no such thing as “not my responsibility.” When something had to be done, we did it.
That work ethic remains the foundation of our military today, and there remains an element of stress of the unknown – not knowing where you will live next, whether your family will be permitted to accompany you to your next post, or when you will be reunited. As service members roll up their sleeves and continue to innovate to accomplish their missions, they often must abandon traditional support systems with bravery, adding significant levels of stress which penetrate their personal lives. This requires them to be intensely resourceful to secure support and manage the stress of uncertainty.
In my post-military career, stress management and resourcefulness proved valuable as I began supporting Hoosiers receiving Medicaid benefits. Many of these Hoosiers face significant stress and resource limitations. That is why my company has placed an increased focus on engaging veterans to join our team, in service to Hoosiers who face stressful challenges on a daily basis with limited resources.
As our military cultivates doers, our lived experience drives many in the business community to embrace the hiring of veterans as they transition out of the military. At Anthem, our business resource group, Veterans of Anthem, brings together more than 1,000 associates who work to enhance our ability to recruit and develop associates with prior military service since they have unique experiences and skills that can be put to good use on behalf of our members. Anthem employs hundreds of veterans who have chosen to self-identify, along with many other military spouses and family members. Our mission is to foster an inclusive and supportive work environment for military veterans and their families.
It is also why Anthem is proud to support Governor Eric Holcomb’s Next Level Veterans initiative as we seek to recruit veterans so we can welcome them and their families to Indiana.
It is my hope that businesses across our state will continue their efforts to engage these men and women as we build our workforce of the future. By becoming a state who respects and embraces the qualities and skills demonstrated every day by our veterans, we set ourselves up to be a state where commitment is the norm, selflessness is revered, and innovation in Indiana soars.
Dr. Kimberly Roop is a U.S. Air Force Veteran and Carmel resident who currently serves as the Medicaid Plan President for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana which serves more than 650,000 Medicaid members through the state’s Hoosier Healthwise (HHW), Hoosier Care Connect (HCC) and Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) health insurance programs.