Gjerald received her Ph.D. in leadership from the University of Stavanger, Norway. The title of her dissertation is ?Basic assumptions of service employees: Influence on employee job outcomes?. In addition to research work experience as a Ph.D. candidate, Gjerald has extensive work experience throughout the service and hospitality industry. Gjerald has worked in Madagascar in an exchange program facilitated by FK Norway (Norwegian Peace Corps). Her current research interests include implicit leadership theories, distributed leadership, service value chain behavior, and perceptions of crowding in tourism.