Terry Svat, painter and printmaker, was born Therese Speranza in Cleveland, Ohio on 4 June 1938. Her parents, Rose and Michael Speranza, lived near the Cleveland Museum of Art and, from a young age, Terry attended the Saturday art classes offered by the museum. She graduated with a BFA from Kent State University and then began working in the commercial art field in Ohio, Minnesota, and the Washington, D.C. Terry married Gerald Svat who became an economic and commercial officer in the U.S. foreign service, and his work gave Terry the opportunity to live in and experience the cultures of Russia, Chile, Argentina, Panama, and Germany. Svat received her M.A. in Art Therapy from George Washington University Art Therapy Program where she has been a guest lecturer and clinical instructor. She has worked with chronically mentally-ill adults, emotionally disturbed adolescents, and older adults with dementia onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Svat remains active as an artist and has exhibited around the world, receiving many awards. She currently resides in Virginia and is a member of and exhibits with the Washington Printmakers Gallery and the Vienna Art Society. In 2016, Svat was selected to be a part of the prestigious Columbia University’s Art Cart program where her work was catalogued and saved in their archives and some pieces were selected for exhibition at the Katzen Center Museum, American University, Washington, D.C. Svat has had solo exhibitions in Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Panama City, Panama; and Munich, Germany.

Terry Savt is represented in the collections of Library of Congress and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; as well as museums in Argentina, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Spain.