Professor Gelpern's research explores the legal and policy implications of international capital flows. She has published articles on debt, development, and financial globalization, including most recently "Domestic Bonds, Credit Derivatives, and the Next Transformation of Sovereign Debt" in 83 Chi.-Kent. L. Rev. 147 (2008), "Odious, Not Debt" in 70 Law & Contemporary Problems 81 (2007), and "Wal-Mart Bank in Mexico: Money to the Masses and the Home-Host Hole" in 39 Conn. L. Rev. 1513 (2007). "Public Symbol in Private Contract: A Case Study" (with G. Mitu Gulati) was published in 84 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1627 (2006). The article was selected for presentation at the 2007 Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum.

She is a visiting fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics and, before joining the Rutgers faculty, was an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Between 1996 and 2002, she served in legal and policy positions at the U.S. Treasury Department, where she focused on international debt and development issues, international financial institutions, and managing financial crises. She practiced with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York and London, advising governments and private sector clients on debt restructuring, investment, and other cross-border financial transactions.

Professor Gelpern earned an A.B. from Princeton University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is also part of the core faculty of the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers-Newark.