Our Team

Michael Daniels developed Ingenium’s highly effective and research-supported Strong Character model—doing what is right even when it’s hard to do—based on his own experiences. Michael started life in the inner city of Grand Rapids and learned firsthand how challenging school, work, and life can be. Domestic violence caused the death of his mother when he was five. Just months after his high school graduation, his brother was shot and killed in a gang violence situation. Michael struggled in school, even failing the third grade. He was bullied throughout high school.

Working in factory jobs and at Zondervan, a Grand Rapids publishing company, Michael learned strong character skills from a group of positive-minded friends. One friend, who was directing Cascade Engineering’s nationally recognized Welfare-to-Career program, asked Michael to help him launch a youth-support program, “School-to-Career Progressions,” to help kids stay in school. As a volunteer, Michael began to teach Progressions courses.

He soon stepped into the role of executive director, a position he has held for twenty years. Recently Michael directed a major expansion of the program under its new name, Ingenium, which is Latin for “character.”