Ank Michels is a retired Associate Professor at the Utrecht University School of Governance. She studied Political Science at Nijmegen University, and finished her dissertation at the Department of Public Administration of the University of Twente. Her present research interests include democratic innovations, participatory governance, and deliberative democracy. She has published extensively about these topics, both in English and in Dutch.

In her most recent  research project, the NWA-project 'Revitalized Democracy for Resilient Societies', together with other researchers in the Netherlands, she studied the effects of combinations of deliberative and plebiscitary forms of democratic innovations (talking and voting). On a regular basis, she also advised governments and government organizations about political reforms and (local) democratic innovations.

At the Utrecht University School of Governance, she taught public administration and politics, supervised bachelor- and master theses, and taught in 'Executive Master Programmes'.