Dr. Pfeffer has worked to extend existing undergraduate curricula by developing courses such as: Constructing American Families, Perspectives on LGBTQ Issues, Sociology of Sex and Sexualities, and Sociology of the Body. Her graduate courses have focused on: knowledge construction and theory; feminist theory, epistemologies, and methodologies (including qualitative methods in the social sciences); program and practice evaluation; and DEI-focused topics (such as queer communities and social justice). In her graduate courses, students learn by doing—facilitating classroom dialogues, generating publishable original works, practicing research skills, and presenting their work to their peers. Dr. Pfeffer has published with both undergraduate and graduate students and mentors students both within her disciplines and university and beyond. An interdisciplinary mentor, she has served as a faculty supervisor and on undergraduate and graduate committes for students in business, creative writing (fiction and poetry), education, English, political science, public health, public policy, psychology, social work, sociology, and women's and gender studies.

Sought out by doctoral students for her substantive and methodological expertise and constructive and developmental feedback, Dr. Pfeffer has also served as an external committee member and examiner for dissertations at Indiana University-Purdue University, University of Chicago, University of Delaware, University of Massachusetts, University of Texas at Austin, and University of the West Indies. She has also served as a faculty mentor across several sections of the American Sociological Association, Sociologists for Trans Justice, and Sociologists for Women in Society. Dr. Pfeffer received a university-wide teacher of the year award while faculty in the Purdue University system.

She is committed to bringing research methods to life for students, providing active learning opportunities to develop a sense for what conducting social research is really like in the real world, challenges and all. She is active in guiding honors undergraduate theses, funded undergraduate research, masters theses, and doctoral comprehensive exams and dissertations. In this video, Dr. Pfeffer discusses some of her research and teaching while faculty at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Pfeffer has also taught an online asynchronous course, open to both undergraduate and graduate students, at Michigan State University during the summer. A highly-popular course, "Queering Social Work: LGBTQIA+ Community and Social Justice" features community-engaged research and practice approaches and has met full enrollment capacity each time it has been taught.