Her research program focuses on environmental policy and governance, including examining how institutions respond to complex environmental problems. She earned her Ph.D. in conservation biology from the University of Minnesota, where she also taught courses in environmental policy and conservation biology. Brummel received a UM doctoral dissertation fellowship for her work on collaborative governance and wildland fire planning in the U.S. and New South Wales, Australia, as well as a Fulbright Scholarship supporting her research in Australia. She also collaborated on interdisciplinary National Science Foundation-funded research through UM’s Department of Forest Resources focusing on how social networks affect dairy farmers’ decisions concerning sustainable production and land-use systems.