Howells served as the Director of the
Greenwich Racial Equality Council, as well as a Community and Equal Opportunities Worker. She was a trustee of the
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, and served as the unofficial advisor to the Lawrence family. Howells was the first black woman to sit on the
Greater London Council'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 worked with the Carnival Liaison Committee, Greater London Action in Race Equality, and was an active campaigner for justice in the field of race relations. She was 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. In March 2009, she was inaugurated as the Chancellor of the
University of Bedfordshire in
Luton. Howells was a trustee of St George's University's UK Trust and served on the board of the
Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF), the research institute affiliated with
St. George's University. ==Personal life and death==