Zimmerman was born in New York City. In the late 1970s she worked as an intern at Women Make Movies and was then hired by the organization as the Associate Producer and Editor of Why Women Stay, which was directed by Jacqueline Shortell-McSweeney. In 1983 she became the Executive Director of Women Make Movies. She has moderated panels and given master classes at the
Sundance Film Festival, the
Toronto International Film Festival, and Reel Screen. She lectures regularly on women filmmakers and independent film at various universities, including
the New School for Social Research,
the University of Texas at Austin,
UCLA,
Harvard University and
Smith College.{{Cite web|url=https://sites.rutgers.edu/cwah/event/an-evening-with-debra-zimmerman/|title=An Evening with Debra Zimmerman Zimmerman served on the juries of various film festivals, including the
Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam,
the Cartagena Film Festival and the
One World Film Festival. she held the Laurie Chair in
Women's Studies at
Douglass College and Rutgers University in 2014-15.{{Cite web|url=https://womens-studies.rutgers.edu/component/content/article/52-academics/undergraduate-program/830-undergraduate-spring-2015-course-descriptions|title=Undergraduate Spring 2015 Course Descriptions ==Awards and honors==