As a fellow of the Leakey Foundation, she worked on archeological digs in Turkey and Ethiopia and was part of a team that excavated Ardipithecus fossils.

Getty ran fundraising events for Democratic political candidates including Kamala Harris and Barack Obama, and hosted cultural salons in her Pacific Heights mansion.

[1][3] Getty did fieldwork as a paleoanthropologist in the 1990s, participating in archeological digs with the Leakey Foundation, for which she served as a fellow, and Tim D. White in Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia, and in Turkey.

[3] She worked alongside researchers Berhane Asfaw, Giday WoldeGabriel, Yonas Beyene, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Sileshi Semaw, Erksin Savas, and Cesur Pehlevan.

[2] A prominent society hostess in San Francisco, Getty hosted philanthropic events for the arts, sciences, and health care.

[1] She entertained artists, public figures, and celebrities including Luciano Pavarotti, Carolina Herrera, Edna O'Brien, Jessye Norman, Plácido Domingo, and Bertrand Delanoë at her Pacific Heights home.

[8] In 1987, she and her husband founded the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, which primarily supports classical music in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[21] Getty and her husband were known as international jet setters, and often traveled on their private Boeing 727, The Jetty, to attend music and art festivals around the world.

[1] U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor London Breed both issued public statements regarding Getty's death.