She received her Ph.D. in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures from the University of Washington, Seattle, and taught Nordic literature, language, and culture classes at the University of Washington and Indiana University before joining the faculty at UND. Gjellstad also served in a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway, before returning to the U.S. Her research explores intersections of literary, gender, and cultural studies. She has published scholarly articles on contemporary Scandinavian with a particular focus on mothering and fathering.