Dr. Zamani-Gallaher served as president of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges, an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges, and is the director for research and scholarship of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA). She is the recipient of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges Senior Scholar Award, an ACPA Diamond Honoree, and an awardee of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Council on Ethnic Participation Mildred B. Garcia Senior Exemplary Scholarship.
Her research has been published in various journals and scholarly texts including Equity and Excellence in Education, Higher Education Policy, and New Directions for Student Affairs. She has authored and edited seven books; her most recent titles include Working with Students in Community Colleges: Contemporary Strategies for Bridging Theory, Research, and Practice (ACPA/Stylus Publishing), ASHE Reader Series on Community Colleges, (Pearson Publications), and The Obama Administration and Educational Reform (Emerald Group Publishing).