April 13, 2023

Featuring former VA-05 Congressmen Tom Perriello, Denver Riggleman, and L.F. Payne.

On Thursday, April 13, the St. Anne’s-Belfield School and Charlottesville/Albemarle community came together for a symposium on democracy and citizenship in the modern world. Thank you to all attendees! Re-watch the discussion below.

L.F. PAYNE 

L. F. Payne Jr. is a businessman who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1988 until 1997, representing Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District. Highly regarded in both political parties, he was a founder of the Congressional Blue Dogs, a coalition of moderate and conservative Democratic members of Congress. He most recently served as president of McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, where he worked for more than 20 years, and prior to his congressional service was a licensed professional engineer at Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company and builder of the Wintergreen Resort community, where he served as chairman and president of Wintergreen Development Inc. Payne currently serves on the UVA Board of Visitors and additionally served from 2003 to 2011. Congressman Payne attended the Virginia Military Institute for his undergraduate studies and later received an MBA from the University of Virginia. 

DENVER RIGGLEMAN 

Denver Riggleman III is a former Republican member of Congress from the 5th district and served as a subject matter expert on data analytics for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). He is co-owner and principal of Silverback Distillery and author of the 

New York Times bestseller The Breach: The Untold Story into the Investigation of January 6th, based on his role as an advisor to the Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. He was a United States Air Force Intelligence Officer and the co-founder and former CEO of a successful federal contracting company supporting military science, technology, and advanced analysis. Riggleman is a distinguished graduate in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia, where he concentrated on the former Yugoslavia and its history of religious and political strife. 

TOM PERRIELLO '92

Tom Perriello, a member of the St. Anne's-Belfield School Class of 1992, is a former Democratic member of Congress from this district, where he supported landmark legislation including the Affordable Care Act, the DREAM Act, and climate and stimulus legislation. He served as the special representative for the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and as the U.S. special envoy to the African Great Lakes Region during the Obama Administration. He was subsequently the CEO of the Center for American Progress Action and is currently executive director of Open Society-U.S., which supports efforts to advance equality, fairness, and justice with a focus on marginalized communities in the United States. He has dedicated his career to fighting injustice, climate change, economic inequality, and crimes against humanity and is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School.