Meet Michelle Levi McDaniel
“Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.” - Brian Tracy
Michelle Levi McDaniel was born and raised in South Park, which is in Southeast Houston near the medical center and NRG Stadium. Michelle grew up with her grandparents. Her grandmother and her grandfather were her caregivers growing up. Michelle does know her parents but did not live with them. Michelle’s grandparents came to Houston, probably in the late 1940s. They were living in Buffalo and Centerville, Texas. They got married, and then moved to what is now known as Midtown. So then they moved near Rosedale, which is around the corner from TSU campus. Michelle’s mom, aunt and uncle's were raised in Third Ward and were Jack Gates graduates.
Michelle never really went to school in her community. Instead, Michelle was always blessed and had opportunities like Magnet or Vanguard programs that allowed her the opportunity to be outside of her community, which she greatly appreciates because those opportunities gave Michelle a chance to see diversity before diversity was included. After she graduated from Sharpstown High School, Michelle went to Baylor University. Sic ‘em! At Baylor, Michelle majored in Business Management, had a minor in Accounting, then went back and got her Finance degree.
Michelle has always been very involved in her community. Even though she doesn't reside in my community anymore, her mother still lives there. Michelle remains active and is very familiar with a lot of things still within my community. Michelle has never really thought about living in another place other than Houston. Michelle has visited so many wonderful places in the country and in the world but she loves Houston. She was married here, she’s raised her children here. They've gone to college, and now they're starting to graduate college and come back home. This has always been home. We love with Houston as a bond. Houston is really a beautiful city, if you know how to move around in the city. When Michelle finished college, she started her family, got married, and then had a wonderful career in corporate America.
However, Michelle continued to volunteer in her community. Michelle knew she had so much more to offer. She wanted to be able to work for herself so that she can make own niche. So that’s exactly what she did. As Michelle has matured as an executive, even a C-suite executive, she has learned what true philanthropy means in her community. Giving back and looking after those that don't necessarily have as much as we do, but they still want a better way of life in our community. We've had food deserts. We have so many low-income housing that needed to be ravaged and so when she saw those needs, she became a part of different community projects and volunteered with different organizations. The business side of Michelle equates to where she’s been and what she has done. The give back out of her business is the financial literacy to young adults, and to working single family adults that want to live better, but don't necessarily know how to do it based on where they live. That's one of her big givebacks as an entrepreneur to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to recover from anything that they're currently experiencing. Michelle’s mom still lives in the community, She will not move. So Michelle is there all the time. And that is what she likes about her city.
What makes Michelle nervous is that all of us as a community, as a state, as a city, that we can lose the quality of life. Michelle is on the board at League of Women Voters, Houston Texans YMCA and many other organizations that give back but what really scares her is that the economic impact that we've had for Harvey has set so many families back. Some people may not be prepared to move forward. Then you look at the economic impact of what's happened based on Harvey, and now we're about to deal with things like voting rights suppression. That kind of stuff makes Michelle nervous because if you are already underserved, you have poor economic opportunities, school education training work, housing, and then they take away opportunities for us to vote. That's what's really making Michelle nervous right now. Because she doesn’t want to see that happen, and she knows that she’s not the only one. Michelle thinks we should just be people and care about people.
For the remainder of 2021, Michelle’s goal is to be more fit. Michelle takes care of herself by eating right and having a healthy diet. However, she wants to remain healthy so she can continue to serve.
