Ank Michels is 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 current research project, the NWA-project 'Revitalized Democracy for Resilient Societies', together with other researchers in the Netherlands, she studies the effects of combinations of deliberative and plebiscitary forms of democratic innovations (talking and voting). On a regular basis, she also adivises governments and government organizations about political reforms and (local) democratic innovations.

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