She spent one year in college in Sweden, then moved to San Francisco in 1969 after earning her BA in Humanities.
Wynns became increasingly involved in political issues surrounding education when her three children started public school in San Francisco.
As the San Francisco Bay Guardian noted when they endorsed her in 2004, "Wynns has spent years as the board skeptic, asking the uncomfortable questions that needed asking and identifying legal and financial realities.
"[3] Wynns was as a supporter of former San Francisco Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, who eventually left after increasing clashes with the board's leftist faction.
Ackerman left San Francisco to become superintendent of Philadelphia's school system, and subsequently died in February 2013.