[3][4] Born on 5 July 1905 in Port-au-Prince, she was the daughter of the poet and diplomat Georges Sylvain and his wife Eugénie Mallebranche.

[3] Her academic career began in 1941 when she taught at Haiti's Ethnology Institute, continuing in 1945 at the National Agricultural School and at Fisk University.

She received the Susan B. Anthony prize for her work L'Éducation des Femmes en Haïti (The Education of Women in Haiti).

Sylvain-Bouchereau played an important part in contributing to La Voix des Femmes, the organization's journal.

She was an early participant in the work of the United Nations, arranging social services for Polish political prisoners in 1944.