She helped the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation develop the Executive Nurse Fellows program.

She wanted to begin graduate school at Penn, but a faculty mentor encouraged her to attend an out-of-state program to gain different perspectives.

She was Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UCSF from 1977 to 1982, which made her the highest ranking woman in the UC system.

She was nominated for chancellor at UCSF, but Chater realized that no non-physician had ever held the position and she withdrew from consideration.

[7] In the mid-1980s, she worked for the American Council on Education (ACE), which involved traveling between California and Washington, D.C.[7] While on sabbatical from UCSF and working with ACE in Washington, D.C., in 1986, Texas Woman's University (TWU) nominated Chater as a candidate for university president.

About half of TWU's academic offerings were in the health sciences, which made Chater a unique fit.

In testimony before the commission, Chater pointed out that TWU was the nation's only public university primarily for women.

[13] In 1994, the Social Security Administration was broken off from the Department of Health and Human Services, with Chater reporting directly to the president.

[14] At her confirmation hearing the next month, she faced stern criticism from Senate Finance Committee chairman Bob Packwood.

An article in The Baltimore Sun said that the failed nomination hurt morale at the agency and may have undermined Chater's power with Congress.

She helped to develop the Executive Nurse Fellows program and served as its national advisory committee chair.