Skjelsbæk studied English, French, psychology and statistics, and earned a cand.mag.
degree in social psychology at the then-University of Trondheim in 1996; Her thesis was titled Women and War: A Qualitative Study of the Construction of Femininity in the Wars in the Former Yugoslavia, El Salvador and Vietnam.
She is a visiting senior fellow at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics.
In addition, Skjelsbæk is the author of numerous research and policy oriented reports and has been an active lecturer and commentator.
In 2011 and 2012 she is a guest researcher at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley.