[judy wicks]
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Judy Wicks is owner and founder of Philadelphia’s 24-year-old White Dog Cafe, and is a national leader in the local, living economies movement. She is co-founder and co-chair of both the national Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), and the local Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN). She is also president of the White Dog Cafe Foundation, dedicated to building a local living economy in the Philadelphia region.

Ms. Wicks has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Business Enterprise Trust award for creative leadership in combining sound business management with social vision. More recently, she received Business Ethics Magazine’s first “Living Economy Award,” and the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year. Other accolades include American Benefactor’s “America’s 25 Most Generous Companies” award, Conde Nast Traveler’s list of top 50 American restaurants, and Inc. Magazine’s 25 favorite entrepreneurs in the country. Ms. Wicks co-authored The White Dog Cafe Cookbook: Multicultural Recipes and Tales of Adventure from Philadelphia’s Revolutionary Restaurant.

With a four-part mission of serving customers, community, employees, and the natural environment, the White Dog Cafe has created numerous educational and community-building programs which focus on topics such as economic & social justice, peace & non-violence, drug policy reform and community arts. Through “Table for Six Billion, Please!” the international “sister restaurant” project Ms. Wicks began in 1984, she has organized trips to Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Vietnam and Israel/Palestine in order to understand the effects of US policy. In 1992, Ms. Wicks began the White Dog mentoring program, which introduces inner-city high school students to the restaurant business. Her adjacent gift store, the Black Cat, founded in 1989, features local crafts and Whole World Products, which promote an inclusive and sustainable global economy. White Dog Enterprises employs over 100 people and grosses over $5 million annually, demonstrating the concept of “doing well by doing good.”

Ms. Wicks was co-founder of the Free People’s Store, now called Urban Outfitters, in 1970, and general manager and co-proprietor of Restaurant LaTerrasse from 1974 to 1984.

She was also co-founder and President of Synapse, Inc. a non-profit publishing company, and editor and art director of its publications, the Whole City Catalog in 1972 and ‘74, and the Philadelphia Resource Guide in 1982.

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