Antoinette Rodez Schiesler (December 13, 1934 – April 8, 1996) was an African-American chemist and Director of Research at Villanova University. She was also a former Roman Catholic nun and Episcopal priest. Carole Virginia Rodez was born in Chicago, and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, by her mother Gladyce Cunningham Rodez. At twelve, she was enrolled as a boarder at St. Frances Academy, a Catholic girls' school for "colored girls" run by the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Inspired by her teachers, she decided on a religious life, and became "Sister Mary Antoinette" in 1955. As a nun, she earned a BA degree in 1967, and taught elementary school. She earned a master's degree in chemistry in 1969 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a thesis titled "The Inactivation of Pancreatic Lipase by Gamma Radiation". In 1971, she left the religious order to pursue a career in chemistry.
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