Education
Spikes studied mathematics at Southern University and graduated in 1957, before earning a master"s degree in math from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Spikes studied mathematics at Southern University and graduated in 1957, before earning a master"s degree in math from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
She was the first African American woman to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics from the Louisiana State University in 1971. Spikes was also the first female university chancellor and later the first female president of a university system in the United States. Spikes died on June 1, 2015, aged 78.
Their only child Rhonda died in 2010.