Dr. Bentley’s research focuses on women and infant's nutrition, infant and young child feeding, behavioral research on sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and community-based interventions for nutrition and health. She is an expert in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and the application of these for program development and evaluation. She currently is working on an HIV behavioral intervention prevention trial in Chennai, India; on a community-based intervention to improve child growth and development in Andhra Pradesh, India; on an intervention to decrease maternal to child transmission of HIV during breastfeeding in Malawi. She directs a five year, longitudinal study to examine risk factors for the development of pediatric obesity in North Carolina. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Indo-US Joint Working Group on Maternal and Child Health and is a member of the ASPH Global Health Committee. She also holds membership in the American Institute of Nutrition, the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Medical Anthropology, and the American Public Health Association. She is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology. In 2005 she was named Paul G. Rogers Ambassador for Global Health.

As Associate Dean for Global Health, Peggy Bentley is responsible for developing a comprehensive fundraising and strategic planning program for global health in the School of Public Health. She serves as a leader for global health in public health, across Health Affairs and the University, and externally. She is the Associate Director for the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, a university-wide initiative for global health. She serves on advisory boards for a number of University groups, as well as for IntraHealth International. She represents UNC on the Global Health Committee of the Association of Schools of Public Health. She is involved in establishing collaborations with several international organizations (Family Health International, RTI International, IPAS, Constella) and is central to collaborative planning for global health with Duke University. She leads the educational and curricular goals and objectives for global health, including teaching the only university-wide course in global health at UNC that attracts over 120 students each fall. She facilitates collaborative teams to respond to federal (NIH, USAID, CDC) funding for international/global research opportunities.