Honors College’s Daniel Williams to highlight leadership lessons at lecture series

For 90 minutes each Monday, Daniel Williams leads his Honors College class, Adaptive Leadership in a Changing World (HNR 350), imparting his experience to the next generation as one of Grand Rapids’ most influential young leaders.

Williams will offer a glimpse into one of his seminars as part of the 2025-2026 Fredrik Meijer Lecture Series and Wheelhouse Talks on November 7 at the L. William Seidman Center. Doors open at 4:50 p.m. 

Williams has built a career centered on education, whether in a nonprofit or an academic setting. For nearly five years, he has served as president and CEO of the Steelcase Foundation, where he guides its mission in fostering community partnerships to cultivate philanthropic opportunities. 

With his two advanced degrees in education, Williams said returning to a classroom setting was an exciting proposition when he accepted the Frederik Meijer Honors College’s Meijer Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

“The time at the foundation has been great, but one of the things that I felt disconnected from is that education part of my career and life, and so I was really excited to get back in and to engage with students,” he said.  

Williams said his lecture will reflect many of the same themes he and his students explore in HNR 350. The class provides space to “think about issues and challenges, holistically,” he said. 

“We all are making decisions and choices every day that are rooted in some belief system or some value system, and if we don't pause and pay attention to that, then we could really be missing how others are actually feeling,” Williams said.

“One of the things we spent a lot of time talking about is how we define empathy and what people say about walking a mile in someone else's shoes.”

Aside from the last five years leading the Steelcase Foundation, Williams also served as president and CEO of the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology and was principal at Grand Rapids University Prepartory Academy. His work in the nonprofit and K-12 sectors earned him selection to the Crain’s Grand Rapids 200 Most Influential Leader list and its 40 Under 40 Distinguished Alumni list. 

It’s that experience that’s been an indispensable commodity for his students, who are on the verge of forging their own pathways in the world. Williams said he hopes his students emerge from the class with a critical and curious perspective toward their own actions and practices. 

“Yes, we should be challenging what's happening and how we’re existing in this space, but we need to do that with thoughtfulness and care,” Williams said. “We need to do that with deep curiosity to be wanting to learn because there might just be something we don’t know yet, and that’s OK.”