[1] Having been awarded an OBE in the 1994 New Year's Honours,[2] she was made a Life peer as Baroness Howells of St Davids, of Charlton in the London Borough of Greenwich on 21 July 1999.

[3] The name St Davids refers to the parish in Grenada where she was brought up, to the south-east of the island.

Howells was the first black woman to sit on the GLC's Training Board; the first female member of the Court of Governors of the University of Greenwich and was the Vice Chair at the London Voluntary Service Council.

She is a Trustee of the Jason Roberts Foundation, which aims to provide a range of sporting opportunities for children and young people in the United Kingdom and Grenada.

[6] Baroness Howells is a trustee of St George's University's UK Trust and serves on the board of the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF), the research institute affiliated with St. George's University.