Brenda Gellner

Visiting Assistant Professor

School of Public Policy

Education

Ph.D. Public Policy and Management, University of Washington, 2024
MPA, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2017
B.A. Mathematics, Northwestern University, 2014

Teaching & Research Interests

Street-level bureaucracy theory
Frontline worker discretion and well-being
Experimental and qualitative methods
Microeconomics and policy analysis

Dr. Brenda Gellner

Brenda Gellner is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the UConn School of Public Policy. She received her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. Brenda’s research examines frontline worker discretion, well-being, and coping in public service environments, particularly in the healthcare sector. She uses a combination of experimental methods, in-depth interviews, and computational text analysis to explore how street-level bureaucrats navigate constraints and engage with the public. Her current projects include studies on the emotional toll of constrained discretion among primary care providers, predictors of coproduction, and physician discretion in the context of the opioid epidemic. At SPP, she teaches courses in economics and policy analysis.