President
Dennis Joyner, a combat-disabled veteran of the Vietnam War, was appointed board president for the Disabled Veterans’ Life Memorial Foundation in 2015. Prior to his appointment, he served on the board as secretary from 2008 to 2015. A life member of DAV (Disabled American Veterans) since 1970, Joyner served as the organization’s national commander from 1983 to 1984.
As a soldier in the Army, Joyner became a triple amputee after a land mine exploded while he was on patrol in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta in 1969. He lost both legs above the knees and his left arm below the elbow. He was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
In 1975, Joyner earned an accounting degree and established a 30-year career in local government, first in his native Pennsylvania and later in Florida. While living in Pennsylvania, he was appointed by then-Governor Richard L. Thornburgh to serve on that state’s Vietnam Herbicide Commission.
In 1983, President Reagan named Joyner the nation’s Handicapped American of the Year and he was honored as DAV’s National Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year. He served as president of the DAV Vietnam Veterans National Memorial Corporation from 1986 to 1998.
He was a budget analyst and manager for the Seminole County, Florida Office of Management and Budget from 1989 to 1998, which led to his appointment by then-Governor Jeb Bush to Supervisor of Elections for Seminole County in January 2004.
Joyner was elected to the DAV National Service Foundation board of directors in 2001, where he served as secretary-treasurer until 2015.
Joyner is a graduate of Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh. He has served in administrative positions for the Westmoreland County Courts in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and in Seminole County, Florida.
Joyner and his wife, Donna, reside in Longwood, Florida.