Dr. Annabelle Spann Boykin was Winthrop’s first African-American faculty member to join the institution in 1972.
A part-time professor of home economics education in the School of Home Economics, Dr. Boykin received a bachelor’s degree in home economics education from South Carolina State College in 1946, a master’s degree in home economics education from Cornell University in 1951 and a Ph.D. in home economics education from the University of Wisconsin in 1958. She pursued post-doctoral work in home economics administration at Columbia University in 1963.
Prior to joining Winthrop, Dr. Boykin served as a home demonstration agent for the Extension Service, an assistant professor at Alabama A&M, and as dean and professor at South Carolina State College. She took a leave of absence from South Carolina State to serve as a family life specialist in the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. She returned to South Carolina State until she joined Winthrop.
She left Winthrop in 1975 to care for her ill sister and then took a five-year position as professor of education at Johnson C. Smith University until she retired.
Prior to her death in 2015, she lived in Lancaster, S.C.