On Air: Team Speaking Engagements
May 1, 2025: Our President, Mike Tenbusch, drops by the studio at Ave Maria Radio to chat about International Samaritan.
If you’d like to have a member of our team speak at your next event, send us an email at communications@intsam.org.
A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Mike co-founded Think Detroit with Dan Varner in 1997, which was named Crain’s Detroit Business Best-Managed Non-Profit in 2004 and merged with Detroit PAL in 2006. After serving on Detroit’s school board, Mike then led an effort at the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to move graduation rates from less than 60% to 80% or higher in the region’s most historically challenged high schools. He also served as the founding executive director of the SAY Detroit Play Center and interim CEO of the Detroit Parent Network. He is the author of The Jonathan Effect: Helping Kids and Schools Win the Battle Against Poverty, called a “moving, inspiring and important book” by bestselling author Dan Heath. Since 2019, Mike has led International Samaritan, a Christ-centered organization whose mission is to walk hand-in-hand with people who live and work in the garbage dumps of developing nations to help them break out of poverty. International Samaritan provides holistic scholarships for students from kindergarten through college, currently supporting nearly 1,000 scholars in Central America, the Caribbean, and East Africa. Mike and his wife, Maritza, have three children: Grace, Julia, and Jacob.