Religious Figure. Co-founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Co-founder of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (I.H.M.) of Monroe, Immaculata, and Scranton. She was was the daughter of Betsy Duchemin, a Haitian refugee, and Major Arthur Howard, a British military officer, and spoke both French and English. At 19 she became a co-founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first successful Roman Catholic sisterhood in the world established by women of African descent. While Superior General of the Oblates, Theresa met the Redemptorist priest Louis Florent Gillet who needed religious women to teach in Michigan's parochial schools; Theresa's knowledge of French would prove valuable in teaching the French speaking Canadians who had settled in Michigan. In 1845, Theresa established the Sisters of Providence in Monroe. Two years later, the congregation, with Gillet as co-founder, became the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (I.H.M). As the congregation grew it continued to dedicat itself to the education of youth. In 1855 the Redemptorists withdrew from Monroe which angered Bishop Peter Paul Lefevre of Detroit. In 1858, as the congregation continued to grow, Theresa accepted Redemptorist Bishop John Neumann's invitation to serve in the Diocese of Philadelphia in Susquehanna County and Reading, Pennsylvania. She attempted to reestablish contact with the Redemptorists in Pennsylvania and consequently fell out of grace with Lefevre. The mission in the Philadelphia was officially opened in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1859. In that same year Lefevre removed Theresa as Superior General at Monroe, and sent her to Pennsylvania foundation, forbidding her to have contact with the congregation she had co-founded. Some sisters were sent from Reading to teach in the parochial schools in Scranton. After Neumann's death Lefevre and Philadelphia's Archbishop James Wood officially separated the Monroe and the Pennsylvania foundations with Theresa ordered not to contact any of her sisters. When the Philadelphia diocese was divided and the Diocese of Scranton was created, its new bishop, William O'Hara, forbade Theresa's contacting her Scranton sisters. In 1871, a new foundation was established in Diocese of Scranton. Theresa, effectively in exile, spent 18 years with the Grey Nuns of Ottawa. After the death of Wood, Archbishop John Patrick Ryan worked towards the return of Theresa to Philadelphia. In 1885, she was allowed to return to the I.H.M. community in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where she lived until her death. Theresa's dedication to the education of the poor survives in the three I.H.M foundations in Monroe, Michigan, Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Immaculata, Pennsylvania.