Kerr was the first Black person to be appointed to the faculty at Mount Holyoke.
Kerr was a graduate of Livingstone College and University of Iowa. She worked at the Tuskegee Institute as an instructor of child development and director of its nursery school. She was also the director of early education programs in Washington DC, Japan, and Ohio.
Kerr came to Mount Holyoke in 1961. She was a professor of psychology and education, the director of Gorse Child Study Center, and assistant and later director of the ABC program. She raised scholarship funds for high school and college students and recruited African American students to attend MHC. Kerr retired in 1985. In addition, she was also an educational consultant for the Head Start nursery schools in Holyoke and on the board of directors of Holyoke Hospital. She held leadership positions at Dunbar Community Center, the National Conference on Christians and Jews, and her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. She died in 1996.