Riccucci is a graduate of Newington High School[2] and earned a Bachelors of Public Administration from Florida International University[3] in 1979.
[1] Riccucci was an assistant then associate professor in Public Administration at the University at Albany, SUNY from 1985-1998.
Presently, she is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University in Newark.
In 2018, she received the John Gaus Award from the American Political Science Association.
In 2022, Riccucci was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa from IDHEAP Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration.