[1] She continued her studies at New York University, where she earned her Masters in Public Administration and her PhD in political science.
[4] A posthumous collection of selected works by Gittell, entitled Activist Scholar, highlights three key themes in her work: education reform and citizen participation, community-based organizations and community organizing, and women's leadership, social capital, and social change.
As founding director of the Institute for Community Studies (ICS) at Queens College and funded through a Ford Foundation grant, Gittell and ICS provided technical guidance and supported a public awareness campaign in support of the demonstration districts selected to pilot decentralized public school leadership and community-led schools.
[8] Gittell's position in support of the demonstration districts placed her into direct conflict with those opposed to school decentralization, most notably the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and its director Albert Shanker.
Shanker and Marcoantonio Lacatena, President, Council of N.J. State College Locals (AFL–CIO) both attacked Gittell publicly, targeting her scholarship.
[9][10] Her co-authored book with Maurice Berube on the conflict, Confrontation at Ocean Hill-Brownsville, has been called a "classic" on the matter.