[3] Huntington began teaching nursing in 1989 at Wellington Polytechnic, joining Massey University after those institutions merged.

[2] Under her leadership the Massey University School of Nursing has been the top-ranked nursing faculty for research quality in successive Performance Based Research Fund quality evaluation rounds.

As chair she oversaw the complete redesign of nursing regulation in New Zealand following the passage of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003.

She was also honorary colonel-commandant of the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps from 2005 to 2016, and has held a variety of national and international roles, including membership of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, the 2018 Performance Based Research Fund health panel, and the editorial board of The Australian Journal of Nursing Practice, Scholarship and Research.

Huntington's research focuses primarily on professional, regulatory, and workforce issues in nursing practice.