Michelle Gielan Biography

Michelle Gielan (born March 31, 1978) is an expert in the science of happiness and human potential. She is the Founder of the Institute for Applied Positive Research, where she researches the connection between a positive brain and success in business, health and relationships.

At Good Think Inc., a positive psychology consulting firm, Michelle and CEO Shawn Achor offer consultancy services, seminars, and presentations that utilize scientific research in positive psychology to better work performance. Michelle works with Fortune 500 companies on ways to raise employee engagement and drive success. Clients include Bank of America, American Express, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, KPMG, and Crain's Chicago Business. She holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research and advice have received attention from Forbes, USA Today, CNN, FOX and NPR.

Career

Michelle joined CBS News in July 2008. In 2009, Michelle anchored and co-produced "Happy Week" at CBS, a week-long series of interviews focusing on fostering happiness in life, relationships, the workplace and at home, especially during the recession. The series aired on Up to the Minute.

Prior to that, Michelle was a reporter and fill-in anchor at Fox owned-and-operated station WFLD (channel 32) in Chicago, Illinois. She has also worked at NBC affiliate KTSM in El Paso, Texas as a general assignment reporter and anchor of NewsChannel 9 Today, the station's morning newscast. She began her career in journalism as a freelance anchor and reporter for the Los Angeles, California-based nationally-distributed high school news program Channel One News.

Michelle holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated cum laude with Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Tufts University. She did undergraduate work at the University of Sydney in Australia and studied broadcast journalism at UCLA. She serves on the board of the Living Values Education program and volunteers for LIFT - Leading India's Future Today.

Trivia

In January, 2010, men's lifestyle magazine Manolith.com named Michelle as one of "40 of America's Hottest Newswomen."