Bio
Author, activist and retired entrepreneur, Judy Wicks founded Philadelphia’s iconic White Dog Cafe in 1983, which became a pioneer in the farm to table movement and a model in sustainable business practices. In the nonprofit world, Judy was founder of Fair Food Philly (2000) and the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (2001) and cofounder of the nationwide (BALLE) Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (2001), now called Common Future. In 2015, Judy founded the Circle of Aunts & Uncles, a micro loan fund for local entrepreneurs without access to family & friends stage capital. Addressing the climate crisis, in 2019, Judy founded All Together Now PA, with a mission to both mitigate and prepare for climate change by building resilient, self-reliant regional economies. After almost a year-long stint as a caregiver for a family member, in 2023, Judy retired from organizational work and passed the torch to two employees who strategically narrowed the mission of All Together Now to focus specifically on building a sustainable regional textile industry, and changed the name to PA Fibershed, on whose board Judy sits.
In her retail career, Judy cofounded her first business, the Free People’s Store, in 1970. Perhaps the first of what is now called a “life-style store,” sales were directed at a specific population, in this case the under 30 crowd, and offered a variety of merchandise encompassing most of what that demographic needed, but were traditionally sold separately, from household furnishings, to new and used clothing, to house plants, novelties, records and books. After her departure from the business in 1973, the name was changed to Urban Outfitters, and continues to be run by Judy’s former partner. The name Free People was later revived, but with a different concept, selling only clothes. In 1989, Judy got back into retail, starting the Black Cat next door to the White Dog Cafe, which featured locally made and fair-trade gifts for twenty years.
Judy’s work has earned numerous local and national awards, including the James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award, the International Association of Culinary Professionals Humanitarian Award and the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs Lifetime Achievement Award. Judy was inducted into the University Science Center’s Innovators Walk of Fame in 2016.
After the sale of the White Dog Cafe at the end of 2009, Judy began work on her business memoir Good Morning, Beautiful Business: The Unexpected Journey of an Activist Entrepreneur and Local Economy Pioneer. Published in 2013, the book won a national gold medal for business leadership and was translated into Chinese and Korean. At age 77, Judy is now focused on her own backyard where she is transforming a lawn into a meadow and creating a sustainable homestead, where she plans to hold educational programs and community celebrations.
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