Dr. Michael Baran is a social scientist and CEO of Iris Inclusion. Through his speaking engagements, writings, consulting, leadership development, workshop facilitation, podcasting, and digital products, he leads a team of people that build cultures of inclusion, psychological safety, innovation, and performance so that people, teams, and organization can thrive. Before making the shift to full-time consulting work, he taught courses at Harvard University and the University of Michigan, and he worked as an applied researcher at the FrameWorks Institute and the American Institutes of Research. His work has been covered in the New York Times, Forbes, CNN, NPR, and more.

His recent book, Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions was coauthored with Dr. Tiffany Jana with a second edition released in 2023. The book has won several awards, has been a Hudson News and Amazon bestseller, and has been named by Forbes as one of “11 Books to Read to Be a More Inclusive Leader.”