Philip “Phil” Rigney is a native of Pittsylvania County, Virginia where he returned in 2018 to buy the family farm originally purchased by his grandfather in 1922.
Offered a position with the JVSG program in Roanoke, over the last five years Phil has built a successful JVSG team at the American Job Center collaborating with partner agencies and reaching out to employers to advocate for veterans’ employment.
Joining the Virginia Department of Veteran Services in April 2023 Phil is a retired Navy Chief. He holds a master’s in human resources development and is a Reality Therapy certified counselor.
With his last duty station at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas, Phil wrote curriculum first for the Navy and then for a defense contractor until 1999. He went on to teach high school, and for over 10 years was an adjunct at Sul Ross State University & Rio Grande College in Uvalde.
Phil joined the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments in 2004 as Coordinator of Business and Employment Services in the nine-county region serving six workforce centers. His role expanded over time to include special populations and veterans’ services, before taking on a new challenge in San Antonio as Center and Program Manager in two urban workforce centers administering five federal program grants.
Phil is an advocate for homeless and justice-involved veterans and is always looking to support communities of southwest Virginia. You may contact him by email: philip.rigney@dvs.virginia.gov or call 804.898.9134.