She has served as a professor in the department of anthropology, director of the Women's Studies Program and dean of the College of Social Sciences at California State University, Fresno.
[1] She teaches cultural anthropology coursed that cover religion, gender, health, and post-colonial situations in Africa and the Middle East.
Gruenbaum's research focuses on practices relating to female genital cutting (circumcision), women's health in rural African and Middle Eastern contexts, and child protection and human rights movements.
She served as the secretary of the Society for Medical Anthropology from 2006 until 2009 and is on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies.
[7] Gruenbaum considers her greatest achievement in her career to be working with UNICEF in 2004, when she was able to conduct research and advocate social marketing for the involvement of girls in female genital cutting and circumcision.