Chris Cate: Welcome to the Fluent in Floridian Podcast, featuring the Sunshine State’s brightest leaders talking about the issues most important to the people of Florida and its millions of weekly visitors. In this episode created by Salter Mitchell PR, our executive producer Heidi Otway, the president of Salter Mitchell PR, talks to Flagler college president, Dr. Joe Joyner.

Heidi Otway: Dr. Joyner, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Fluent in Floridian Podcast.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Thank you. I’m glad to be here.

Heidi Otway: Yes, we’re excited to have you. So you are a Florida native, is that right, born and raised in Florida?

Dr. Joe Joyner: For the most part, yeah. Well, I was raised in Florida. I came here in 1960. My parents were both teachers, and came to Orlando in 1960. That was before Disney, and I was five years old. So I’ve lived here for 59 years.

Heidi Otway: Okay. So your father, your mother, and your grandmother were all educators. What was it like as a little kid going to school and coming home to your parents, who were both teachers?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Well, everybody in my family was teachers. My wife has taught for 40 years. My grandmother taught first grade in the same classroom for 40 years. My mom and dad were teachers. All my brothers and sisters, three brothers and one sister, were teachers. My wife’s sisters were teachers. And so it was just part of our family. Interestingly enough, when I went to high school in Orlando, my father was named our high school principal, which was kind of interesting, an interesting experience to have your dad as the high school principal that you ended up going to. So that’s actually where I fell in love with administration. And I just loved the ringing of the bells. I love school and I love the school part. And I knew that when I got out of college that I wanted to be an educator.

Heidi Otway: I really want to go back to your story about your father being your high school principal. I know that you’ve got a really good story that you can share with our listeners about either a great experience or an unusual experience with your father as your principal.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Well, let me say that was back in the paddling days. And I was not immune, so it was hard for me to get away with anything.

Heidi Otway: I’m sorry to laugh. I’m sorry.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Yeah, not that that’s good, but it was what it was back in the early ’70s. But it wasn’t horrible. Obviously, it was hard for me to get away with much. But he treated me just like any other student. One of the things that I did experience is I saw what he went through as a principal, as a high school principal, which is a difficult job. But I just fell in love with the impact that an administrator can have on hiring good teachers and doing things for students. And so really, at a very early age back in high school, is when I fell in love with that. But it was neat. I didn’t get any favoritism, and I think that is a good thing. And I didn’t really want any, and I made my own way. But it was a unique experience.

Heidi Otway: Good. So you went to Florida State University. Was your intent to take the steps you needed to become a school administrator at Florida State.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Well, I went on a football scholarship, and so I played football there for four years. And so that’s where I went. That’s where I had a scholarship opportunity. And so I went and majored in education while I was there. And also had loved sports, was involved in sports all my life for all through high school and growing up. And so that part of it led me to fall in love with coaching. And so the first eight years of my career as I taught, I was coached. I coached everything, primarily football. So that’s kind of my experience at FSU helped me sort of create that. I had a great experience there. I got to be Coach Bowden’s first year, Bobby Bowden’s first year was my senior year. And so I got to experience a lot of different things from that arena, and got to be under a great leader, somebody I’ll always remember all my life and somebody that had a big impact on my life and still does to this day. So that’s something I’ll never forget. But I majored in education. He actually got me a teaching job. Coach Bowden got me a teaching and coaching job at Alabama right after I graduated from high school, from college, excuse me.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And he got me a job in Prattville, Alabama, which is just north of Montgomery. And I stayed there for three years, and then relocated back to Central Florida, and spent about 13 years at Apopka High School, just north of Orlando, and worked my way kind of through the system, became a department chair. And after a while, that itch to be an administrator, kind of an opportunity fell in place for me to be a dean for a while. And I sort of fell in love with that, even the discipline part of it. And just I knew right then that administration was what I wanted to do. And so I began to take classes at UCF. And I ended up getting my master’s and my doctorate at UCF in educational leadership.

Heidi Otway: That’s wonderful. So you spent almost two and a half decades as a teacher and an administrator. What is it like these days when you see your former students?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Well, they’re old, older than that I’d think they’d be. But they still call me Coach, and I still get invited to things. The impact that educators have on young people lasts a lifetime. My wife is the best teacher I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m sure I’m prejudiced about that. But she’s a fabulous teacher, taught elementary school for 40 years. But she still has students call her to this day. And the impact of an educator is for a lifetime. And so I still see and hear about former students. And you can tell you made a positive impact on their life, both through coaching and teaching. And ultimately, I worked my way through as an assistant principal, and ended up being principal at Apopka High School, and then moved into district level administration, and ultimately prepared myself for a public school superintendency.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And so it is, I guess the greatest joy that you get, that I’ve gotten, is to see students, and that’s to this day. Even though I’ve been in the business for going on, this is my 43rd year, the biggest highlight for me is seeing our students succeed here at Flagler. And that’s important to me, the most important thing to me.

Heidi Otway: Wow. So let’s talk a little bit about your years as a school district superintendent. And I was reading a lot of the accolades that you accomplished during that time, maintaining an A rating for the district for more than a decade. What were some of the things that you learned? You were coached by Bobby Bowden. You were a coach yourself. You taught in Alabama. You taught in Florida as a teacher and became an administrator. What were some of the things that helped you accomplish this remarkable scorecard with the students and the schools and the district?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Yeah. Well, I didn’t do any of it, really. People ask me that question a lot. And probably I get asked that question more than anything. And the only things I can point to, certainly not superintendent, but you act almost as an orchestra director, where you get people to work around you, and you try to inspire them with a common vision. And for me, it was all about great teaching, so we focused on high quality instruction, hiring the very best we can find, having high expectations for the work of our teachers in the classroom, and expecting that.

Dr. Joe Joyner: So focusing on, I used the term it’s all about great teaching for my entire superintendency, and that’s the truth, especially when the heavy accountability came in. And I was all part of that transition over the last 20 years, where accountability and politics got involved. And so focusing on great teaching, and then here, what attracted me to Saint Johns County and Saint Augustine was that the parents here were very supportive of their public school system, and you don’t see that everywhere. And so that attracted me that they had high expectations for what happened in their public schools, and I was okay with that.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And then obviously, we had bright children. So when people ask me that question, it’s we have bright children and supportive parents and great teaching, and sort of the perfect storm for success. But it certainly wasn’t about me. What the superintendent tries to do is get people around, hire people around you in key positions, principal positions and all that, that have that common philosophy about what’s important, and the importance of teachers and teaching, and having high expectations for the student, whether they’re low poverty, students who struggle academically. It’s having high expectations for their work, and not having excuses and not taking excuses. I think part of that’s my coaching background. We’re just not going to quit. And I think that just sort of led to the success in the district. But I certainly don’t … It wasn’t about me. I was blessed to sort of be part of that at a time where we had a community that was ready for it. And we had the whole accountability system very early on, public educators had a hard time adjusting to that.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And this happened way back 20 years ago when Governor Bush was here, and actually started with Governor Chiles, back the year before he left. And we started seeing a trend toward accountability. And of course, it ramped up more and more and more. And you got into school grading and started evaluating teachers based on test scores, and all those kind of things. And that was hard at first for sort of pure educators to deal with because it was something very new. But there are a couple of ways you could look at that. One, you could try to fight it, and you could complain about it. Or you could try to embrace it. And so we decided this is the way we’re going to be viewed. This is the way we’re going to be judged. This is the way our success is going to be judged. So we’re going to embrace it, and we’re going to take what the requirements of the state are, and whatever political steps were being taken, and we’re going to turn it into the Saint Johns County way. And we were going to be successful.

Heidi Otway: What are your thoughts on the new movement around the charter schools? Are you able to share your thoughts on that and how you think that’s going to impact the public school system?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Well, it’s not new. It’s been around a long time.

Heidi Otway: But it’s grown. It’s growing now.

Dr. Joe Joyner: It is growing, and there’s a lot more support. I’m not anti charter. And I think there are times and places where you need to do something different, and you need to do something dramatically different. What was difficult is sort of painting all school districts with the same brush. And for us, and sort of creating these charter opportunities when we were being successful. And I did not fear the competition. Matter of fact, I welcomed it. I wanted to go to fight, I wanted to go to battle with them because I knew were going to win. And we didn’t have a lot of charters in Saint Johns County. And I think part of it was that we were being, the school district was being successful. So I’m not anti charter. I think there are times and places.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Urban school systems have a very, very tough, tough row to hoe. I spent 23 years in Orange County, and I supervised the poorer schools in Orlando. And it’s a tough gig, and sometimes you have to do things differently, and so I’m okay with that. But what I do believe is that you ought to have the same standards. You ought to have the same requirements. You ought to have the same accountability. You ought to get the same resources, and we’ll see what works best for the students. So I’m about what’s best for the students, and so whether it’s charters, voucher schools, or regular public schools, I do feel like in many ways, public schools almost took a back seat in deference to sort of promoting charter environments. And I think in many ways, both financially and just in the support, just in public … Not in the public support, but in the political support, quite frankly, that it was very, very pro charter when we could really, at many times, we needed some help as well.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And I think a rising tide lifts all boats, and we needed … Public schools need assistance too in becoming the best they can be. So not against it. I think there’s a time and a place that they’re successful. I worry a little bit about the oversight of charter schools. There’s no group, there’s no institution more scrutinized and held accountable and audited as public school districts. I mean, we get six, seven different audits a year. And I learned to embrace that. And I learned to embrace the importance of transparency and being in the public and public records. And all that was great. But when you don’t have the appropriate oversight, even though it was annoying, that oversight kept us, made sure that we were doing things the right way, and made sure that we were both audited appropriately, and we were spending the taxpayers’ dollars the right way.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And so when you lose that level of oversight, which I’m a little worried about, then you sort of open up opportunities for fraud and some bad things. And that’s not good for charter schools. I think that those who run successful charter schools, the worst thing that they like to see is … The worst thing for them to see is bad charters. So those that run good charters, they don’t want to see bad charters. They don’t want to see fraud and all of that. So I think we need to make sure that the oversight is there in order for them to thrive.

Heidi Otway: Great. Well, thank you for your insight on that because it is a lot of talk is happening about it. And I do agree with the oversight and the transparency issue. We’ll see how that plays out in the coming years here in Florida.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Yeah. That’s for sure.

Heidi Otway: So let’s transition to you were planning to retire, and became the president of Flagler College. Did you have a relationship with Flagler prior to becoming their president?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Not really. I did and I didn’t. I knew about Flagler. And about my last three years as a superintendent, I was asked to be a trustee. And it was something that I’d always been interested in. And so when I came on the board here at Flagler, and started to look at the value system, their core values, and honestly, I just fell in love with the kids. I mean, it’s an age group that I love. They’re at this place in their life where they’re trying to figure out who they are. The students at Flagler all want to change the world for the better, they just don’t know how. And I love the age group. The students here are very, very special. And quite honestly, that’s just what sold me on … I was ready to retire. I’d spent 40 years, and that’s long enough, especially in the meat grinder of being a school superintendent. When I retired, I was the longest serving sitting superintendent in Florida.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

Dr. Joe Joyner: At 14 years. And so they chew them up and spit them out. I was ready. It was time for someone with fresh ideas to come into Saint Johns County, and I realized that. And so really didn’t have any intention on doing anything. But because of my experience, I was a good trainer of new superintendents. And Florida’s a unique state because more than half of the superintendents, probably 2/3 of them are elected. And the other 1/3 are appointed. And so particularly the ones who are elected, a lot of times they don’t have much education background. And so I had a desire and a love to train superintendents. There are a lot of balls to juggle, and so I was just going to do that.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And ended up, I remember I was riding around figuring out which boat I was going to buy, and which golf course I was going to go to. And I heard on the radio that President Abare had announced his retirement. And so I just thought about it, prayed about it, talked to my wife about it, and decided to put my name in the hat. I think there were 171 applications. And 170 of them had higher education experience, so I was the only one who didn’t. So I had no expectation that I’d even get an interview, but I did, and here I am.

Heidi Otway: Wow. That’s a great story. So what was the adjustment like going from a school district with 37,000 students to a campus of only 2500? What was that like?

Dr. Joe Joyner: I thought it’d be easier. You just think, I thought, golly, I’m going from almost 40,000 students, 5000 employees, 3/4, a half billion dollar budget, lots of different accountability, to a place that’s 2500 students. I said, “This has got to be less stressful. Right?” And it’s not. It’s just as much hard work. It’s kind of like being a principal and a superintendent at the same time because we have a board. Instead of having five board members, we have 26. And so we’ve got a board of trustees, and so you do all the things, you do budgeting, facilities, human resources, all those kind of things that I’ve done all my life that I felt comfortable with.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Fundraising is different in a private college. And so the academic piece was really an easy transition because that’s always been my love. The scholarship to me is just really attractive, so I love that piece of college. And I sort of fell right into that. I had to learn the difference between fundraising. So when I said it’s kind of a cross between being a principal and a superintendent because you get involved in the daily life of students. And so when things happen, you’re in the middle of that. You’re in the middle of making decisions. Whereas superintendent, you always had a principal or an assistant principal to handle those, whether it be discipline issues, or attending athletic events, or being out every night.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And so for me, I came full circle because I got to reengage with students on a daily basis. And the difference between having 40,000 students, and you know none of them, and then you come to a place where you have 2500 students, and you know most of them, at least by face anyway, has kind of been full circle for me. And it reinvigorated me really because I sort of am able to finish my career with the same purpose and reason that I started it, and that’s because I love children.

Heidi Otway: That’s wonderful. What are some of the programs that you all are implementing at the college? I was recently reading an article about your partnership with the China Foreign Affairs University. Tell us a little bit about that and maybe some other programs that you all have on campus under your leadership.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Well, we just finished our strategic plan, and so there’s a lot in there. And we spent a year, actually, studying what greatness looks like at Flagler College over the next five years. And so we’ve created three priorities. One was [inaudible 00:24:09] transformative academic experience. And one of the things you need to do in small private institutions like Flagler, it’s a tough time, especially in Florida, because Florida public tuition is so low. It’s a tough environment to work in. And it’s very, very competitive to get students to private schools. And so we wanted to really distinguish ourselves, so we redid our mission, redid our core values, and really wanted to expand the diversity of our local community, of our college community. And that’s where the China program came inboard, is trying to expand our international population a little bit.

Dr. Joe Joyner: We had very few, if any, Asian students. And so we wanted to be more diverse and sort of be a microcosm of what the world looks like. And there’s so much benefit to our students being able to engage with a diverse population. And when I say diverse, I say it in broad terms. You have students from, 44 different countries, 47 different states, and so you’ve got students interacting with students from Colorado and California and New York and New Jersey. We have a strong presence up in the Northeast. And so it’s neat to see them interact with each other and actually become friends and work on projects together to change the world. And so the whole idea of creating that diverse and inclusive community was something that we worked on, on our strategic plan.

Dr. Joe Joyner: So to do that, we looked at our programming. And we looked at sort of a college wide initiative academically to create what they call a quality enhancement plan, which is to create a program in liberal education and citizenship in a diverse democracy. And so we try to tie everything into that theme in our quality enhancement plan. And so we’ve created what we call a mini-mester, which is mini courses, which includes a lot of different things, including study abroad, study away, internship experiences, different types of classes that help students around that theme, that help students see and understand the world that’s around them. So that was a big piece of it, the liberal education and citizenship in a diverse democracy.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And then we looked at adding some unique measures. And we wanted some things that were endemic to Saint Augustine, so looking at things like anthropology and historic tourism, expanding our hospitality and tourism. Henry Flagler was both a businessman, a very successful businessman, and also in the tourism business. And so our business program is extremely strong, and so we wanted to strengthen that by creating an innovation center for creativity. We went very strongly into the area of entrepreneurship, which is something I think that’s really … Our students love … Our students, they all want to change the world. They all want to make money, and get out of college and make money. But they want to do it in a way that changes the world in a sustainable way.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And so that’s the type of student that we get here. So we wanted to identify our programming to do that. We want to expand our … We had a gap in our natural sciences, so we wanted to add a biology major, which was a big deal for us. And we’re also redoing our general education program to really focus on our core values. General education are those courses the students take their first couple of years, their foundational courses. But we wanted to center those around the types of what our four core values were as a college. And it really, I think, it’s going to make a big difference in where we’re headed.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And then other things, the discovery program for our students who wanted to expand our advising program and first year students. And so a few selected majors move into graduate programs as well, sort of methodically, move into selected graduate programs. We wanted to expand our adult and continuing education. And part of that is to try to connect with the community better. We have a strong community education program. We also wanted to add some adult and continuing education programs. And then support our faculty and their teaching. We’re developing a center for teaching and learning to help teachers with their craft.

Dr. Joe Joyner: One of the things that we’re unique about is we’re small and our class sizes are very small. And so all of our faculty members are advisors and mentors. And so one of the things when you come to Flagler that … I went to two huge universities, and so very large classes. And one of the things you get here is a very personalized experience. Someone just mentioned, I see you and I know you. You really know the students, and you know when they’re there and when they’re not there. When you have class sizes of around 15, you’re able to develop those close relationships with the faculty. And those relationships end up with internship, study abroad experiences, undergraduate research, which we’re going big into, all those kind of neat things that you can get by being small. And so that’s a long answer, but we’ve got a very ambitious strategic plan, and those are sort of some of the core elements of new programming that we’ve got planned.

Heidi Otway: Let’s talk about the student life there at the campus because you are on that beautiful facility, the Hotel Ponce de Leon. And I remember the very first time I saw it on a field trip with my kids, coming from Tallahassee to Saint Augustine. And I just remember saying, “Oh, my God. I want to go in that building. I don’t know what it is. It looks like a hotel.” Tell us about the student life and how students engage outside of the classroom, your sporting activities, or just being in that beautiful campus.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Well, that’s the thing of course, that first attracts a lot of students to Flagler. And when I ask students, “Why did you come here?” So many of them say, “I came here on vacation. My parents took the tour.” We have a couple 100,000 people a year that go through tours of this building, our main building, is the Hotel Ponce de Leon actually is a national historic site.

Heidi Otway: Yes, this is beautiful.

Dr. Joe Joyner: So we do tours all day, every day, all year long. So we’ve got a couple 100,000 people a year coming through there. And you’d be surprised how many students I run into say, “We came here on vacation. Took the tour, and I never wanted to go to school anywhere else.”

Heidi Otway: That’s wonderful.

Dr. Joe Joyner: The neat part about it is we have, this particular building, which was the main hotel, is the freshman women’s dorm. So we have 500 freshman women living in the old Ponce de Leon Hotel.

Heidi Otway: Allow me to interrupt. That is super cool. That is very cool.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Yeah. And they eat three meals a day. I don’t know if you’ve ever been here, but our dining hall has the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the world, and just these beautiful murals. And it was the Flagler’s ballroom, and the students eat three meals a day there. And it’s kind of Harry Potter ish in some ways. Kids kind of get into that. And I like to call it a living, breathing museum because it really is. And it’s a challenge to take care of. It was built in 1888, so you’ve got a lot of issues with dealing with an older building, especially when you have 500 women living in this particular building. And they’re all so respectful of the beauty of this place. And then going in the dining halls and having the tours, so it gets a lot of use. And so it really is a living, breathing museum. And that is very cool to see.

Dr. Joe Joyner: When you’re living in a dorm room, every one of them has a fireplace, of course, not working. We don’t have them working for obvious reasons. But they’re in an old hotel, and you can just imagine you’re in a place where nine presidents stayed. It’s just crazy.

Heidi Otway: That’s amazing. What about sporting? Just for people who are listening and thinking, “Man, I would love to learn more about Flagler, or sending my kid there, or actually going there.” What about the rest of student life, and what are the other activities, extracurricular programs that you have on campus? What’s your sports like? You’re a former coach. What are your big sports there?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Well, we have division two. And so we’re division two, we have most all sports except for football. And of course, we have basketball, volleyball. Matter of fact, we just won the … We’re in the Peach Belt conference for division two. And we just won the Commissioner’s Cup, which is for the outstanding athletic program in the conference. So that’s the first time that’s ever happened. We also won the Sportsmanship Award for the conference, first time that’s ever happened as well. So our student athletes have our highest GPAs.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And they have higher GPAs than our … And they graduate faster than our regular student body, so they really are student athletes with great character. And so being in division two, division two really is about balance. You are a student athlete. Most of the scholarships are not full scholarships. A lot of them are partial. And you really have to end up being a balanced student. So baseball, softball, cross country, golf, tennis, we compete in all those. We’re adding in our strategic plan, lacrosse, men’s and women’s lacrosse, we’ll be adding in a couple years, which is a great fit for us in this part of the state. Lacrosse is taking off everywhere, especially in Saint Johns County. But we’re continuing to add sports as well.

Dr. Joe Joyner: But our athletic program is focused on character first. And I ran into a program called Victory with Honor when I was a superintendent of schools in Saint Johns. And this Flagler College sort of emulates what Victory with Honor means, and so that’s the thing I think I’m most proud of, is we do things right. Character is always first. And it’s great to see our students compete. Division two is great because you’ve got only a certain number of athletes are going to be able to make division one college programs. And you still have some students who are excellent athletes who still want to compete. In division two and division three and the NAIA, they all give students that opportunity to continue to compete athletically. So the sports program is one of our bright spots.

Heidi Otway: Great. Well, Dr. Joyner, I can tell just from having this conversation with you that you sound like you’re having a great time at Flagler College.

Dr. Joe Joyner: I am. I love it. I love it here. Yeah. It’s a great place.

Heidi Otway: Well, I could ask you a lot more questions about your vision. But you’ve really just really laid out a wonderful foundation for your strategic plan with your faculty and your board for moving the college forward. And it sounds like the future is definitely bright for Flagler College. But as we wrap up our conversation today, we always like to ask our guests four questions. And they’re really all about you and what makes you Floridian. So I’m going to ask you these four questions to get your feedback. Are you ready?

Dr. Joe Joyner: I am.

Heidi Otway: Okay. So the first question is: Who is a Florida leader you admire? It could be someone from any industry or field, from the past, or someone who is still active in their work?

Dr. Joe Joyner: That’s hard. You can only do one?

Heidi Otway: Well, you’re our guest. If you want to do more than one, you’re more than welcome to do that.

Dr. Joe Joyner: I mentioned, other than my father, the person that has the greatest influence on me as leader and a person is Bobby Bowden, just the character he displayed. The loyalty and longevity and commitment that he gave that university, and how much he cared for his students, athletes, the boys that he coached [inaudible 00:39:37]. And there are other leaders in the state that I respect a great deal. I remember when I was in my graduate, my doctoral program at UCF, we had a visiting professor. And we had to take a class outside the college of education. And I had to take a class in public administration.

Dr. Joe Joyner: And it just so happened, Reubin Askew was teaching the class. And he rotated around to different state universities to teach his class in public administration. I could sit and listen to him talk about his commitment to the state of Florida and his love for the state of Florida. That was the old days in politics. And to see how he was able to work, the partisanship wasn’t there. And he had a true love for, obviously it’s a great … He and Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles, they were all strong governors in my field, which is education. They felt strong about that. But just to sit and listen to Reubin Askew talk about the old days and the way politics was, and how they were able to accomplish things across the aisle. And I just had a lot of respect for him.

Heidi Otway: So the next question is: What is a person, place, or thing in Florida that deserves more attention than its currently getting?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Okay. See, that’s so easy. Okay? The great work of teachers in Florida, I think deserve much more credit than they get. Teachers are life changing, transformative. They change lives forever. And teachers are my heroes. And they don’t get near the sort of attention or credit. And I’m talking about K through 12, pre K through 12 teachers. And I’m talking about university professors. They are so dedicated to their children and to the lives of their children. I just don’t think they get the attention that they need to do. And sometimes not the respect that they deserve.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. I agree with that. What is your favorite Florida location to visit?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Saint Augustine. I came here, I see something new every day. I came here, gosh, 17 years ago. Fell in love with it, and never wanted to leave. I mean, it’s just an incredible … I’m a history guy, so I love all of that. But I also love sort of the small town community atmosphere and just the uniqueness of the place. And I just think it’s fabulous. There’s places in Saint Augustine. I love to go to the mission grounds. It’s just so peaceful, different places here that I just love to go to, and I never grow tired of it.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. Some of my favorite experiences with my children are when we would do the field trips to Saint Augustine. I have some great photos of us in various locations around the city. It’s a beautiful city. And the last question is: Do you have a favorite Florida sports team?

Dr. Joe Joyner: Oh, gosh. I have two. I have three. Well, two really. I love the Flagler Saints more than anybody. And of course, I have to love the Seminoles since I played there, so that’s an easy one.

Heidi Otway: Great. Well, Dr. Joyner, thank you so much. This has been a pleasure for me to get to know you better and to have this conversation with you. And we are so happy to have had you as a guest on our Fluent in Floridian Podcast. Thank you so much.

Dr. Joe Joyner: Thank you.

Chris Cate: Thanks for listening to the Fluent in Floridian podcast. This show is executive produced by April Salter, with additional support provided by Heidi Otway, and the team at SalterMitchell PR. If you need help telling your Florida story, SalterMitchell PR has you covered by offering issues management, crisis communications, social media, advocacy, and media relations assistance. You can learn more about SalterMitchell PR at saltermitchellpr.com. You can also learn more about the Fluent in Floridian podcast and listen to every episode of the show at fluentinfloridian.com or by searching for the show using your favorite podcast app. Have a great day.