[4] Glennerster received her bachelor's of arts degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University in 1988, where she was a member of Somerville College.

[6] From 2004 to 2017, Glennerster was executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In 2020, following the department's merger with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), she became their chief economist, a role she fulfilled until July 2021.

[17] Glennerster's areas of research includes and focuses on randomized trials of health, education, microcredit, women’s empowerment, and governance.

Geographically, her research has spanned West Africa and South Asia, including countries such as Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.

[5] Together with Michael Kremer she also authored the book Small Changes, Big Results: Behavioral Economics at Work in Poor Countries.