[8] Ward attended the University of Alabama, where she was Homecoming Queen, a Crimson Tide cheerleader, and joined Chi Omega sorority.

[10] While working in New York City as a storyboard artist for multimedia presentations, Ward began modeling to supplement her income.

[citation needed] Ward eventually moved to California to pursue acting and landed her first film role in the 1983 Burt Reynolds vehicle The Man Who Loved Women.

Ward continued to land guest roles in both television and films throughout the 1980s, most notably opposite Tom Hanks in 1986's Nothing in Common.

In 1991 she was cast as the bohemian alcoholic Teddy Reed on Sisters, for which she received her first Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1994.

Later on, Ward would voice the part of former model turned villain Page Monroe in an episode ("Mean Seasons") of The New Batman/Superman Adventures, which focused primarily on the media's obsession with youth.

When she read for the role of Lily Brooks Manning on the series Once and Again, its creators (Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz of thirtysomething fame) initially deemed Ward "too beautiful" for the average single mother to identify with.

Ward was originally offered both the role of Megan Donner on CSI: Miami and Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, but turned both down.

Hope Village for Children opened in Ward's hometown of Meridian in January 2002, housed on a 30-acre (12 ha) property once used as a Masonic-owned and operated orphanage, and is intended to serve as a pilot for a nationwide network of similar shelters.

A roughly 0.9 miles (1.4 km) stretch of 22nd Avenue in Meridian (from 6th Street southeast to the Interstate 20 highway interchange)[21] has been named the "Sela Ward Parkway" in her honor.