Celia Ward-Wallace, Bruin story since ’98

---

Celia Ward-Wallace ’98 is the 2025 Edward A. Dickson Alumnus of the Year. A social justice leader, visionary changemaker and entrepreneur, her work through South L.A. Café and its Community Foundation has had a transformative impact in South Los Angeles and beyond.

The daughter of civil rights organizers Lian Hurst Mann and Eric Mann, Ward-Wallace was raised with a deep responsibility to fight injustice and stand with marginalized communities. She spent 13 years with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks as a community center director, where she helped launch Girls Play LA, expanding Title IX protections and access to sports for girls citywide. While working full-time, she earned her juris doctorate from the People’s College of Law, a movement-based institution training lawyers for justice.

In 2011, she founded The Ward-Wallace Group, a coaching and consulting firm that has supported over 1,000 leaders, organizations and social enterprises. Her signature programs — Soulful Coaching Academy, Super Fly Soulful Business and Women’s Night Out — train women and movement leaders to create impact from a place of purpose and power.

Ward-Wallace is a keynote speaker, author, correspondent and television host. Her book “A Woman’s Guide to Having It All,” is a blueprint for leading with authenticity and building a just world. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member, teaching graduate students and community leaders a curriculum rooted in justice, resilience and legacy.

In 2019, she and her life partner Joe Ward-Wallace co-founded South LA Cafe. With multiple locations including ones at the Natural History Museum and Hollywood Bowl — the café offers fresh, healthy and affordable food while serving as a civic and cultural hub. The anti-gentrification effort turned community anchor is built on the Community Centered Business Model™, which reimagines businesses as a force for justice. They hire locally — including system-impacted individuals — offer above-living wages, and partner with the South LA Community Foundation to run the Café Academy, a workforce training program that builds leadership and career pathways.

Building on the success of the café, the Ward-Wallaces founded the South LA Community Foundation in support of advancing racial equity, economic justice and climate resilience. In 2020, the Foundation launched the South LA Grocery Giveaway, which provides free groceries to over 200 families every Wednesday and has served roughly 300,000 people to date. The Foundation also mobilized free Covid testing, vaccinations and health clinics during the pandemic. In 2024, the Foundation secured funding from Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove to develop South LA Community Resilience Centers — expanding the cafés into hubs for empowerment, emergency response and self-determination.

In response to the 2025 L.A. wildfires, the Foundation organized and mobilized over 1,000 volunteers, distributed air purifiers and core necessities to over 500 families and supported 400 incarcerated firefighters on the front lines. Their work was backed by major funders including the City of Los Angeles, United Way, Annenberg Foundation and The California Endowment.

A proud Bruin, activist, mother and freedom dreamer, Celia Ward-Wallace exemplifies what it means to live a life of legacy and purpose. Through every movement she builds and every space she transforms, she is not just changing lives — she is cultivating a future rooted in justice, healing and radical love.