Welcome.
I am so glad you are here.
I’m Michelle Gielan, and my work explores how optimism and resilience shape the way we lead, work, communicate, and live.
I’ve spent my career exploring one question from two very different vantage points — first as a national news anchor, and now as a positive psychology researcher:
How do we face hard things honestly
without losing the motivation to make them better?
From national news anchor to researcher
I lived that question every day as a national news anchor at CBS News, where I reported true and often difficult stories to millions of people. I became fascinated by how the way we frame a challenge shapes what people do next — whether they shut down or step up, disengage or move toward meaningful action.
That fascination eventually pulled me from the anchor desk into research. At the University of Pennsylvania, I trained under Dr. Martin Seligman and began studying the science of happiness, optimism, and human potential. I wanted to understand how we can engage honestly with challenge while still strengthening motivation, agency, and the capacity for positive change.
What my research revealed
I now see resilient optimism is more than a mindset—it’s a measurable advantage. When people learn to direct their attention toward strengths, meaning, and possibility, they think more clearly, recover more quickly, and perform at a higher level under pressure.
Over the past 15 years, I’ve brought this research to leaders, teams, and organizations including Google, Meta, American Express, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Bank of America — helping people build mindsets and behaviors that support both well-being and success.
This work is also personal
In my twenties, I experienced a season of depression that taught me optimism and happiness aren’t about perfect circumstances. They’re about how we interpret and respond to them. Learning to tell a different internal story became the foundation for both my research and my life.
Today, as a working mom married to fellow positive psychology researcher Shawn Achor, I’m reminded daily that optimism isn’t a fixed trait. It’s a practice — shaped by what we pay attention to, what we amplify, and what we choose to pass on.
My mission is simple: to help people build resilient optimism so they can perform at their best when life is at its hardest. Because what we pay attention to shapes not only how we experience the world, but what we’re able to create within it.
Thank you for being here. I hope what you find on this site helps you navigate hard things with more clarity, hope, and confidence.