On 30 March 2026, Melba Ferreiras Lantigua, the first member of the Teresian Association in the Dominican Republic, passed away in Santo Domingo, National District. The Teresian Association has been active in the country since 1954.
One of Professor Ferreiras Lantigua’s most powerful legacies was her decisiveness. She taught those who worked with her and those who came into contact with her to make decisions fearlessly and with clear criteria.
Professor Ferreiras Lantigua distinguished herself through her work as director of the Emilio Prud’Homme Teacher Training College in Santiago de los Caballeros, as head of the Human Resources Department at the Madre y Maestra Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago de los Caballeros, as academic director of the Félix Evaristo Mejía Teacher Training College, and as a lecturer at that college. Her professional career was intense and focused, above all, on the training of educators.
Professor Ferreiras Lantigua’s legacy can be summarised in four key qualities: a strong sense of vocation, social solidarity, problem-solving skills and a wholehearted commitment to teacher training. Throughout her career, she demonstrated a vibrant and open-minded dedication to education. She was passionate about education and, as a result, devoted her entire life to this cause. She strove for an education system free from corruption, commercialism and a lack of transparency.
Professor Ferreiras Lantigua experienced the power of her vocation as an educator; and, for this reason, she needed no formal setting in which to guide and educate. She can be described as a woman with a vocation to inspire in others a desire to study, to become autonomous individuals, and to learn both how to be and how to give of oneself. She always viewed the task of education as an expression of unconditional love for others. Consequently, she went above and beyond in the educational programmes she promoted and led.
With a simple and unpretentious approach, she demonstrated heartfelt and unwavering solidarity. She was deeply concerned about those in vulnerable situations, and this occupied her thoughts constantly. Her sense of fulfilment came from her experience of working with others to help them resolve their most pressing problems.
She experienced solidarity as an expression of fellowship. She embraced human solidarity wholeheartedly, demonstrating the importance of building alongside others and supporting growth and change in everyday life. This way of understanding and living out solidarity gave her the opportunity to travel throughout the country helping to organise and meet the basic needs of families and teachers. It was a form of solidarity aimed at creating opportunities for others to grow and move forward.
Her wholehearted commitment to teacher training was grounded in and inspired by the humanist and progressive pedagogy of Pedro Poveda Castroverde. She was deeply committed to and passionate about teacher training. Through this work, she transformed lives, refocused teaching practices and, above all, enabled those interested in the profession to define their own path. She helped student teachers to learn to discern so that they might refine their vocation and affirm, through their actions, their personal and social responsibility in the field of education.
The legacy of Professor Melba Ferreiras Lantigua is an invaluable contribution to Dominican society, to the Teresian Association and to teacher training institutions.
Dinorah García Romero.
Read orignal text here.
TA Translation Team.
Published in Profiles