“From the Sea to the C-Suite” is a veteran-focused talk show that highlights the journeys of Navy and maritime veterans as they transition from military service toleadership roles in the business world. We celebrate the discipline, resilience, and strategic thinking developed at sea. Those same qualities often turn into success in corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, and community impact.
Our show is more than a spotlight on veteran accomplishments. It’s a place where viewers can learn how teamwork, mission-driven leadership, and the mindset developed through service to help veterans navigate business challenges, innovate in their industries, and build organizations that make a meaningful difference in their communities.
Each episode features conversations with veterans who continue to lead and serve through their work in business and community initiatives. Today, our hosts Captain Rick Hoffman and Whitney Mincey sat down with Harrison Conyers.
Harrison Conyers
Director of the Military Affairs and Veterans Department, City of Jacksonville
Website Address: https://www.jacksonville.gov/departments/military-affairs-and-veterans-department/
Short company description:
Conyers supervises the Jacksonville Veterans Resource and Reintegration Center. Harrison is responsible for citywide military/Veterans’ special events such as: Memorial Day Observance, Veterans Day Breakfast, Mayor’s Base Commander’s Quarterly Meetings, and military appreciation events. He coordinates corporate and community financial development that funds all department special events and social services trust fund. He serves as the COJ representative to the Florida Defense Alliance, Florida Defense Support Task Force, and Chamber of Commerce Military Issues Committee. Harrison is responsible for the acquisition and coordination of $3.0 million + in infrastructure, reinvestment, and social services grants. He is the liaison with United States Navy on base encroachment protection efforts, with over 1700 acres protected.
Transcript:
Whitney:
Hello and welcome to From the Sea to the C-Suite. I’m your host, Whitney Mincey, joined by very special co-host Captain Rick. And we’ve got an amazing guest here today, Mr. Harrison Conyers from the Military Affairs and Veterans Department with the City of Jacksonville. Welcome.
Harrison:
It’s an honor to be here. I love working with y’all and glad to always be here in the presence of the captain.
Rick:
Thanks, Harrison. Only cost me 50 bucks. But Harrison, you are playing such a vital role here in the city of Jacksonville, and it’s kind of unique to our nation. Talk a little bit about how important your services are to the city of Jacksonville and why you’re unique.
Harrison:
Yeah. Thank you for rephrasing that. I’m a servant here. But we are unique in Jacksonville. Obviously, our population, we have over 150,000 veterans in Duval County, close to 50,000 active duty service members and defense contractors that live here.
Huge part of our population. If you look at just the family members with those that are serving, over 1 in 4 of our population. $12.1 billion a year economic impact here on the community.
But we have a Military Affairs and Veterans Department that is cabinet level, meaning that we answer to the mayor. I answer to the mayor. So the mayor is intimately involved in the services that we provide and the outreach that we do for that huge part of our population.
No other community except New York has that, and we certainly do the job a lot better than New York.
Rick:
That doesn’t surprise me at all. Hey, big week for you this week. Talk a little bit about the role you’re playing in TPC.
Harrison:
Sure. Obviously, we’re blessed here to have The Players Championship here. This year was the 15th annual Players Military Job Fair that we hosted.
And we had the privilege to serve with General Mike Fleming and Matt Tuohy and Bill Hickey 15 years ago to stand up that event. This is our 15th year doing that.
And Saturday, we had a full day of employers here in the community that were hiring transitioning military and veterans on the spot a lot of times. So we actually had some come back that were manning tables that got hired years before at that event.
And then yesterday, we had the players, as wonderful as far as their support of the military, we had their Military Appreciation Day at The Players Championship. And that was wonderful too.
Whitney:
Wonderful. And you’ve got a great history of things that you’re doing with the community here, but there are some exciting new things on the horizon also. So talk a little bit about the community center that you’re working on.
Harrison:
Glad to. One thing the mayor has challenged us with since he took office was to stand up… We have community centers and senior centers here in the community, but we didn’t have anything that was dedicated to our veterans and military families.
So we are right now in the design process with The Haskell Company to completely design a military veteran and military family community center.
It will be in the cathedral district of downtown, and one of the neat aspects of it is it sits along Hogan’s Creek. And if you know what’s going on in Jacksonville right now, we are working on something called the Emerald Trail.
The Emerald Trail is a complete revitalization of McCoys Creek and Hogan’s Creek, building greenways all the way around the north side of Jacksonville.
Huge investment going on, but we will connect to that. So we’re not only going to provide a meeting space for veterans and military families and an active communal space, but we will have a gymnasium, recreational space, seminars, yoga for vets, and other things that we’re able to do there and engage that way.
We’ll have a service node where we will be able to share space with other service providers in the community that provide services to that great part of our population.
But we’ll be able to do bike and kayak rentals and access the Emerald Trail from there. That’s been especially important for a lot of our younger vets that will be able to come out and enjoy the green space that we’ve got there and really see what Jacksonville has to offer.
A lot of communities have a veteran hall or something like that. They have space for veterans. But nobody is going to incorporate the service node, the physical side with a gymnasium, and the social side where we’ll be able to engage with our wonderful green space here in Jacksonville.
Whitney:
That’s going to be incredible.
Rick:
Yeah, it’s going to be something special. Plus, obviously we’re going through some tumultuous times in our nation, and certainly Jacksonville has a history of responding to crises that involve the US Navy.
Obviously, the Stark comes to mind. So in the event that something untoward happens to a Mayport ship or aircraft, your organization is there to support families.
Harrison:
We are. We’re not just veterans-focused, we’re military family-focused.
If you look back at our history, certainly Jacksonville hosts the second largest memorial wall in the country next to the Vietnam monument in DC, which bears the names of over 1,700 young men and women that gave their all for our freedom.
And we have the largest municipal Memorial Day observance every year in the country. We start Memorial Day the right way. Before folks do their cookouts and go to the beach, we pay honor to our Gold Star families and remember our lost heroes.
But we stand up to support these military families. Right now, we’re engaged in a project called the Food Pharmacy.
We did this at the request of one of our commanding officers last year, which is to stand up a drive-through grocery store, basically, for our military families.
We started at Mayport. We’ve expanded to the west side. It doesn’t just serve the Navy, it is open to all active duty military, including Coast Guard.
And we know Coast Guard is going through it right now with some congressional issues. It’s very important to them.
But we’re providing fresh groceries to them twice a month in our community.
Rick:
Wonderful, wonderful.
Whitney:
I know you have a saying about it’s not just the people that wear the uniform. What’s the saying?
Rick:
Yeah. Not all who serve wear the uniform. And that’s been such an important and refreshing part of my interaction with Harrison over the years.
It is the family. And as he said, 1 in 4… we’ve got a million people in Duval County. And you look at the surrounding area in St. Johns, then you’ve got Kings Bay to the north.
We are the hub for that expanded region. So 1 in 4 in Duval County, but that does include Brunswick and elsewhere.
So Harrison’s reach and impact is significant. We’re talking probably almost half a million people under your general umbrella for support.
And again, the City of Jacksonville is the only place in the United States that does that.
Whitney:
And he’s caring for and looking out for those other people as well. I know you’ve got an event coming up in June for the spouses. Tell us a little bit about that.
Harrison:
Something we started, I think eight years ago, called Military Spouses Night Out.
And that is a night where the active duty service member is not invited. We invite the spouse. It’s June 4th, and we rent the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena and have a night of food and drink and entertainment and massage therapy and hair care and art classes.
And we give away cruise tickets and dinners and all kinds of gift baskets. We’ve even given away dresses and suits, because there are male spouses as well. We have a man cave there too.
So it’s just a really wonderful event that we have stood up to make sure that the person that stands the watch at home is recognized.
And it’s been very gratifying. Several years we have seen spouses walk out of that event in tears and tell us that no other community where they’ve ever been homeported has ever done anything like that for them.
So it’s a neat event that we do, and it’s fun to do it.
Rick:
Well, we have two aspects of leadership that we’ve discussed today. The first is humility.
And certainly when I first met you, you were the deputy and had already been dedicating your entire professional career to this effort.
But you don’t stand in the limelight, and I commend you for that. You let your team do their job and get the kudos for their effort.
Whitney:
And he’s got an amazing team.
Rick:
Amazing team. How long have you been doing this now, Harrison?
Harrison:
Two weeks ago was 30 years. Third year with the city doing this.
And it is a blessing every single day to see the lives change that we change.
And I remind my staff all the time, you’re the hands of God to these people, helping them with their benefits, bringing access to GI Bill, disability benefits, health benefits, widows benefits, and end-of-life services through the national cemetery that we’ve got here.
So it’s a blessing to be able to do that, and so very fulfilling.
Rick:
On behalf of all the veterans here in Jacksonville and those who still serve, thank you very much for your service and everything you’ve done.
Harrison:
Jacksonville is the most requested duty station in the Navy, and there’s a reason for that.
It’s because of the services we provide, the low taxes, the green space, and the quality of life here in Jacksonville.
We take it as a privilege. We’ve had sailors tell us there are other communities where they serve where there’s “keep off the grass sailor” signs. You don’t see that in Jacksonville.
We want our active duty to be involved in our PTAs, churches, synagogues, and little leagues because they make great neighbors.
And when they leave service, they become great employees for businesses here in Jacksonville.
Whitney:
Well, unfortunately we’re out of time. Thank you so much for being here today, Harrison. Thank you again for your service.
If you want to learn more about the Military Affairs and Veterans Department, head over to dailysnewsnetwork.com. We’ll have all their information linked there.
We will see you next time on From the Sea to the C-Suite.
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