Sammye Wynn earned the RN from Meharry Medical School in 1947. Moving to Knoxville with her husband in 1956, she was unable to find a suitable position in the still largely segregated local nursing profession. She retrained herself by earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Tennessee State University, and, subsequently, a master’s degree from UT. She taught in the public schools until joining the staff of the Educational Opportunities Planning Center of the College of Education as an instructor in 1966, becoming one of the first two African American women (with Charlene Michael) to hold an instructor’s post. She continued her work with the center as it became the Mid-Atlantic Appalachian Race Desegregation Assistance Center and retired from UT in 1983.