Antoinette Rodez Schiesler

Mary Antoinette Rodez Schiesler (December 13, 1934 – April 8, 1996; Carole Virginia Rodez) was an American chemist and director of research at Villanova University. She was also a former Roman Catholic nun and Episcopal deaconess.

Early life Carole Virginia Rodez was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother, Gladyce (Cunningham) Rodez, was a singer from New Haven, Connecticut, who had moved to Chicago to search for work with the big bands. There, at the age of 26, she was raped by a "Cuban man named Rodriguez", and became pregnant. choosing to move back to familiar New Haven rather than raise her daughter in a strange city, despite knowing that she would be shame and excluded from her family for having a child out of wedlock.

Schiesler returned to the convent, working as a math teacher for a year, then as the academic dean, registrar, housemother, and physical science teacher. Her new routine and structure was "claustrophobic".

Schiesler taught at Bowie State College, before she returned to graduate school to earn a PhD in chemical education at University of Maryland, College Park. For a time, she worked as a lecturer and lab coordinator for the University of Maryland, and rewrote the math and science workbooks because "they were not good".

Personal life and beliefs Schiesler had a sister, Arvella, two years younger (to the day) than her, a fact she herself only discovered when she was in her twenties. Her mother had felt unable to take care of two children and had given the child up for adoption to a family in New York City. She later managed to reunite with her sister.