Photo: Malinda Hartong
Barry A. Jesinoski, a service-connected veteran of the Persian Gulf War era, was appointed national adjutant for the more than 1 million-member DAV in June 2023. As DAV’s chief executive, Jesinoski leads the organization, overseeing all staff and operations for one of America’s largest charitable institutions.
Before his appointment, he served as executive director of DAV National Headquarters in Erlanger, Kentucky, since August 2013. As executive director, he served as the organization’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, overseeing employment initiatives, voluntary services, communications, membership activities, fundraising, accounting, administration, human resources, information technology, outreach and logistics.
Jesinoski began his DAV career as a member of Class II at the National Service Officer Training Academy in Denver in 1995. Following graduation from the academy, he worked on the front lines of DAV’s largest service initiative and represented veterans in their claims for benefits.
He rose from an apprentice in Seattle to supervise one of DAV’s most prominent offices in San Diego in two years. In 2001, he was promoted to oversee benefits advocacy for an area encompassing California, Arizona, Oregon, Nevada and Hawaii. Later that same year, he was appointed to the national service staff and assigned to DAV’s Washington Headquarters. The following year, he was promoted to assistant national service director.
In 2007, he was appointed deputy director of human resources and relocated to DAV National Headquarters before taking the lead as director in 2009. Then, in 2011, he returned to Washington, D.C., to lead DAV’s service and legislative efforts as executive director and as DAV’s principal spokesperson at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress and the White House. He served in that capacity until his appointment as executive director of DAV National Headquarters.
Jesinoski is focused on improving efficiencies and aligning DAV’s efforts and collaboration across the organization’s departments. He’s initiated several DAV programs, such as the transition service program, the employment and entrepreneurship departments, service officer certification training, the case management system, the results management office and the most significant IT infrastructure project in the organization’s history. He also led the site selection and construction of DAV’s new national headquarters. Internally, he’s championed benefit enhancements, such as a performance and retention program, flexible work schedule, accelerated PTO allotments, and bereavement and parental leave.
Through his leadership, DAV’s outreach efforts have quadrupled in scope, fundraising has been diversified, and every department in his purview has taken on new initiatives aimed at achieving strategic objectives and modernizing the delivery of services.
A native of Ottertail County, Minnesota, Jesinoski was medically discharged from the Marine Corps in 1993. He earned his initial Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute in 2008.
He lives in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, with his wife and two sons.