Michele Johns is professor of music at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, & Dance, where she has taught church music skills and philosophy for over twenty years. She is the author of Hymn Improvisation (Augsburg 1987) which has received critical acclaim in professional journals and continues to enjoy popularity with organ students in universities, as well as those at other levels of experience.  Currently, she is a regular columnist for GIA Publications, Inc. in their quarterly publication of articles for the practicing church musician.

Dr. Johns is co-founder and executive director of The American Center of Church Music, an Ann Arbor-based, non-profit organization through which she was producer of five interdenominational choir festivals plus concerts, hymn-playing competitions, workshops, and conferences for the enrichment of church musicians.  She is also the co-founder and first Dean of the Ann Arbor chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

As a scholar-performer, Dr. Johns has specialized in historic keyboards and their literature. Organ solo appearances in North America and abroad have featured music of the 18th and 20th centuries.

For more than twenty years, Michele Johns served as Director of Music at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Plymouth MI, developing one of the largest music ministries in the Archdiocese of Detroit.  The ministry included 22 cantors, 5 handbell choirs, plus an

80-voice adult choir. Under her direction, the Plymouth Counsellors Chorale completed five European tours to ten countries plus to churches in the U.S.  A repertoire of over 250 musical selections enabled the chorale to choose repertoire in Latin, French, German, Spanish, Basque, and African dialects.