Fitzgerald has a M.A. in Life Writing from the University of East Anglia, England, and a Masters in Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand, focusing on Natural History Documentary Film Making. She has edited two books about early New Zealand: Letters from the Bay of Islands: Story of Marianne Williams (2004) and Te Wiremu: Henry Williams: Early Years in the North (2011). She has also taught English as a Second Language in New Zealand and in Germany.