In 1998, Dr. Neal H. Mayerson, President of the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, placed a "cold call" to Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman, then President of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Mayerson, himself a psychologist, had been reading Dr. Seligman’s articles in which he proposed that the time had come in the developing field of psychology to pay more attention to understanding the positive end of the continuum of human experience. Dr. Seligman was proposing the establishment of a concerted effort to explore this domain scientifically and he coined the term "positive psychology" to describe his new vocational and personal mission. Dr. Mayerson was interested in knowing how this new field might intersect with his family foundation's interest in helping to create a more just and humane society.

This initial conversation was remarkable mainly in that the two otherwise very busy individuals spent a considerable amount of time conversing about what was then only the foggiest notion. They wondered together whether there was a way they could create an infrastructure by which emerging knowledge from this new science could migrate to the practice worlds that were the focus of philanthropic foundations. A particular interest of Dr. Mayerson's was that of youth development.

Though they did not arrive at any clear proposals during this conversation, they did establish their common interest and many subsequent communications occurred. They eventually decided to create an organization that would serve a bridging function between the worlds of research and practice for the newly forming field of Positive Psychology. They called it VIA - Values In Action - to reflect the content of interest and the bridging function. Dr. Mayerson set about the task of formally creating a new non-profit organization that would:

1. Develop the intellectual infrastructure for Positive Psychology,

2. Develop instruments of measurement for youth and adults, and

3. Serve a bridging function to practical applications.

The next big step was securing the involvement of a lead researcher. Dr. Seligman identified Dr. Christopher Peterson as the best person in the country to do this work. Dr. Peterson was then, as now, a distinguished and tenured faculty member at the University of Michigan Department of Psychology. VIA was fortunate in its timing and was able to secure Dr. Peterson to work on this project full time for three years as the Project Director and primary author.

Drs. Peterson and Seligman then secured the involvement of top scholars in youth development, Positive Psychology, and biological and psychological classification ("Systemics"), and met for two days at the Glasburn Retreat Center in Pennsylvania. The work of developing the basic tools of Positive Psychology had then begun. It took three years and input from many people to derive the current VIA Classification and VIA Strength Surveys.