Lux Forum, a St. Helena thought-leadership group founded and chaired by Celeste White, has kept its run of events and speakers focused on gratitude, reflection and positive social change. The group works as a venue for measured public talk in Napa Valley civic life.
White serves as president and chair of the Board of Directors. Lux Forum’s work is event-driven, built around speakers and talks rather than print or advocacy. Its stated mission rests on three ideas: gratitude, reflection and positive social change. The work sits in the convening. Lux Forum brings community members from across trade and civic sectors together to engage with ideas that may lack an obvious home elsewhere.
Lux Forum sits in a different spot from a service non-profit or advocacy group. It does not run service programmes or press a single agenda. Its task is to formalise the kind of talk that goes on across community life and to give it a set venue. The programming reflects this stance: chosen speakers, set topics, and talks that build on the links already present in St. Helena’s civic networks.
The St. Helena base places these talks in a town with a strong sense of identity, where institutional and personal networks overlap. The forum draws on St. Helena’s civic tradition and extends it into a venue for set-piece discussion. Its format rests on choice of speakers and topics rather than a fixed editorial line. That gives the group room to take on the questions that fit a given season.
White founded Lux Forum as part of a wider record of work across faith-based and community groups in Napa Valley. She has served on the Westmont College Board of Trustees since 2011, served as U.S. Pony Club District Commissioner for 17 years, and has worked with The Salvation Army, Young Life, Hospice, Queen of the Valley Hospital, the Napa Valley Education Foundation Board and Ag 4 Youth. She and her husband, Dr Robert White, received The Salvation Army’s Nehemiah Award for their support of the Napa Culinary Training Program.
She is also the CEO and owner of Horse Rock Olive Oil, a small-batch estate-grown olive oil brand based on the family’s ranch near St. Helena. Her breadth of work across business, education governance, faith-based service and youth development reflects what she has described as a unified orientation toward commerce, community, and service.
The group’s ongoing programming gives that stance a public-facing venue. More on White’s work in business and civic life sits at celestewhite.org.
About Horse Rock Olive Oil
Horse Rock Olive Oil is a small-batch estate-grown olive oil brand founded on the White family ranch near St. Helena, California. Approximately 50 olive trees produce two to three tons of olives per harvest, bottled in Glen Ellen and certified extra virgin.
About Celeste White
Celeste White is CEO and owner of Horse Rock Olive Oil, founder and chair of Lux Forum, a member of the Westmont College Board of Trustees, and a longtime Napa Valley resident.
