Gov. Kay Ivey announced new members of the board charged with advising the state on veteran affairs – a body whose authority was reduced by a law she signed earlier this year.

Eleven new members will join the 15-member State Board of Veterans Affairs, the governor’s office said in a Friday news release.

“We continue to prioritize veteran needs in our state and want to ensure we have every available resource for these men and women who served our country,” Ivey said. “I am proud to assemble a strong and wide-ranging Board of veterans to serve all of their fellow veterans.”

The appointments follow a significant upheaval for the veterans board and the department charged with assisting Alabama’s veterans. A public dispute between Gov. Kay Ivey and the former Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs commissioner upended how the two bodies had operated since 1945.

Formerly, the State Board of Veterans Affairs — comprised of representatives of several veterans organizations — hired the ADVA commissioner and had oversight of the department. In October, Ivey overruled the state board and fired ADVA Commissioner Kent Davis by executive order.

Under a law signed by Ivey in March, the state board’s authority has been reduced to an advisory role, and the governor will now appoint the commissioner, who will hold a cabinet-level position.

The newly announced SBVA members are:

• Col. (Ret.) Larry Vannoy, American Legion
• Col. (Ret.) Walter Kozak, American Legion
• John Keen, Jr., American Legion
• Jeffrey Fisher, American Veterans
• Sgt. Brandi Whitman, Disabled American Veterans
• Deborah Walker, Disabled American Veterans
• Charles Waugh, Disabled American Veterans
• John Burks, Marine Corps League
• Michael Urquhart, Military Officers Association of America
• Lorenzo Nathan, Military Order of the Purple Heart
• Col. (Ret.) Anne Toms, Military Officers Association of America
• Col. (Ret.) Scott Gedling, the Veterans of Foreign Wars
• Robert Schmidbauer, the Veterans of Foreign Wars
• Michael Davis, Vietnam Veterans of America
• Col. (Ret.) Lori Rasmussen, at Large, U.S. Air Force

The 11 new appointees are Vannoy, Kozak, Keen, Fisher, Whitman, Burks, Urquhart, Nathan, Schmidbauer, Davis and Rasmussen.

The appointments are effective immediately.