Founder, Walls Wisdom Works
A Life Spent Building Things That Last
Rev. Julius Walls Jr., Founder of Walls Wisdom Works, has spent decades leading organizations across the nonprofit, business, and faith sectors.
The Long Arc
Julius Walls Jr. did not start his career in the nonprofit sector. He started in restaurant and food-industry management, learning to train staff, run daily operations, and manage inventory and budgets under real accountability. He then moved through corporate operations and sales leadership roles in the food and confection industry, where he learned to read a balance sheet, run a production floor, and close a deal.
That early business grounding did not stay separate from what came next. It became the foundation for a career spent leading nonprofit and social-enterprise organizations the same way a well-run business is led: with clear numbers, clear accountability, and clear strategy.
Leadership Across Sectors
Over decades of leadership, Rev. Walls has led at the intersection of nonprofit management, social enterprise, and community development. He has held senior executive roles including President and Chief Executive Officer of Greyston Bakery and Greyston Foundation, a pioneer of the open-hiring social enterprise model; senior leadership at Greater Centennial Community Development Corporation, focused on affordable housing and community economic development; and Chief of Staff and pastoral leadership roles within Greater Centennial Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
That breadth spans nonprofit leadership, business operations, social enterprise, community development, workforce development, including service on a regional Workforce Investment Board, pastoral leadership, and graduate-level teaching.
Fundability, Learned the Hard Way
Across decades of leadership, Rev. Walls has sat on both sides of the funding relationship: as the executive asking a funder or lender to say yes, and, through board service with a community development financial institution, as someone evaluating whether another organization was ready to receive capital. That dual vantage point is the foundation of Walls Wisdom Works' approach to Fundability.
His leadership experience encompasses more than $50 million in grants and financing across the organizations he has led: work that taught him what actually makes a funder say yes, and what quietly causes a well-intentioned organization to be passed over.
Faith and Practice
Rev. Walls has served in pastoral and denominational leadership, including as Chief of Staff of Greater Centennial Church and as Pastor within the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, currently serving in denominational leadership with that body. His theological formation, including a Master of Arts in Ministry from Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University, informs a belief he returns to often: “Faith Without Works Is Dead” (James 2:17).
For Rev. Walls, that verse is not a slogan. It is a working definition of what a mission-driven organization owes the community it serves: not just a stated purpose, but evidence of the purpose being lived out.
Teaching and Thought Leadership
Rev. Walls has taught at the graduate level, including as the First Social Entrepreneur in Residence at NYU Stern School of Business, where he taught social enterprise, as well as at other graduate programs focused on sustainable and mission-driven business. Author of 2 published books: he is co-author of Mission, Inc., which addresses practical challenges in nonprofit leadership and organizational effectiveness, and sole author of Still Covered On Monday, which explores what it means to live out faith beyond Sunday worship.
Closing
Rev. Walls has been married to his wife since 1986, and credits his family as a source of strength and grounding in both his leadership and his ministry. The throughline across decades and several sectors has stayed the same: build something real, be honest about where it stands, and do the work.
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