She later became the first female faculty member in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. In 1982, she moved to a tenured faculty position at Cornell University in the Section of Ecology and Systematics within the Division of Biological Sciences. Rabinowitz was diagnosed with cancer and died in August 1987 at the age of 39.[1][2] She was survived by her husband, Peter Ewel, mother, Margaret Rabinowitz, and sister, Margaret Russo.[1]