Pipkin earned her Bachelor of Arts in Zoology (Phi Beta Kappa) and Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics from the University of Texas, where she studied with J. T. Patterson and H. J. Muller. She was awarded a Rockefeller fellowship to Kings College, University of London and studied under J. B. South. Haldane.
Upon earning her doctorate, Pipkin taught anatomy and physiology at Texas State College for Women. From 1938–1942, she taught zoology at North Texas Agricultural College, and in 1946 taught biology and zoology at the Catholic University of Beirut. Pipkin taught medical genetics at the American University of Beirut School of Medicine, and held appointments at various other institutions, including Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in Panama and Johns Hopkins University.
She was appointed to the Howard University faculty in 1967 and became a full professor in 1970.
Pipkin studied Drosophila melanogaster triploids and chromosome balance, population genetics, species introgression, and feeding habits. A Rockefeller Foundation grant supported her work on seasonal fluctuations of Lebanese species of Drosophila.
She ended her career with research on the genetics of dehydrogenases.
