She has published more than 45 articles, books, and book chapters, and more than 30 research monographs on the aging network, innovations in the delivery of home care, population projections, global aging, and gerontology education. Kunkel is co-author (with Leslie Morgan) of Aging, Society, and the Life Course, a gerontology textbook now in its fifth edition. With Frank Whittington and Erdman Palmore, she co-edited the most recent edition of the International Handbook on Aging. She is lead author (with Frank Whittington and J. Scott Brown) of a textbook on global aging. Kunkel is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE); she has served as President of AGHE, and is currently the Treasurer of the Gerontological Society of America. She was honored to receive the Tibbitts Award from AGHE in 2015.