After completing a Massey University PhD in 1997, titled Transformation of the welfare state in New Zealand with special reference to employment, de Bruin rose to full professor.

[4][5] The idea for SIERC came about in the mid-1990s, when de Bruin was working in Ōtara, South Auckland, and was developed further during her 2009 Fulbright New Zealand Senior Scholar fellowship, when she spent four months studying entrepreneurship at Babson College, Boston.

[8][9] De Bruin's research is focussed on entrepreneurship and innovation, particularly by women, and how it can create employment in disadvantaged communities or regions.

Their work concluded that Māori social relationships form a support network that could be a source of resilience in times of crisis.

De Bruin's research examines the relationship between this kind of entrepreneurship and an organisation's religious values.