Detroit gets brutal in January. The kind of cold where the highways ice over and most people think twice before leaving the driveway. Yet somewhere on those Michigan roads, a Filipina teacher grips the wheel and drives herself to school through the snowstorm anyway, because the children are waiting and because turning back was never really an option.
That teacher is Dr. Leda Tancio-Baluyot, and the drive through the storm says as much about her as any diploma on her wall. Over more than two decades, she has taught kindergarten pupils and doctoral candidates, worked across three countries, and rebuilt her career twice from the ground up. But the winters, the sacrifices, the long road out of the Philippines and into an American classroom, all of it traces back to a single, stubborn conviction that has carried her the whole way: “Never stop learning as life never stops teaching.”
The insult that changed everything
Leda’s story does not begin with ambition. It begins with a wound.
Raised in Bataan, the province forever tied to the Death March and the Dambana ng Kagitingan, she grew up shouldering responsibility for her family early, becoming resourceful and service-oriented long before she ever stood in front of a chalkboard. She began teaching immediately after graduation, spending her first two years in the Philippines proving she could handle any learner, any subject.
Then came the recognition that should have been a triumph. She ranked first in her division and was assigned to the central school, an assignment she had earned outright. Instead of applause, she got whispers. The chismis culture questioned how she had done it, and the doubt stung deeply enough that she went home and told her husband Eric she needed to leave the country.
He took her to Bahrain. What began as an escape from small-town gossip turned into the launching point for everything that followed.
Building a life, one role at a time
In 2005, the former division topnotcher walked into Philippine School Bahrain, an institution serving the children of Overseas Filipino Workers, and started over. This time the ascent stuck.
She moved from teacher to subject coordinator, overseeing academic alignment, then to curriculum lead, shaping instructional programs across the school. In 2017, that steady climb reached its peak when she was appointed Principal of PSB–Elementary School, guiding teachers and strengthening curriculum systems for a multicultural community of Filipino families far from home.
The classroom was never enough to contain her. Leda pursued a Diploma in International Early Childhood Care and Development, a Master’s in Educational Leadership and Management, and finally a Doctorate in the same field with a major in Special Education. She began advising thesis and dissertation defenses, writing research studies, and co-authoring books, folding her own hard-won lessons back into the broader body of educational knowledge.
By any reasonable measure, she had made it. She had the title, the credentials, the stability. Which is exactly why her next decision surprised the people around her.
Starting over, again
In 2021, Leda left Bahrain and everything she had built there to move to the United States.
The reason was not professional restlessness. It was two names: Erich Lei and Princess Erich, her daughters. “They have always been my greatest inspiration,” she shares with TGFM, and the pull of a brighter future for them outweighed the comfort of a successful career already in hand. Her experience opened doors in Michigan, where she now teaches elementary students at Detroit Edison Public School Academy, bringing a global perspective into American classrooms.
Nothing about the transition was easy. She had to absorb a new culture, adjust to the diversity of her students and colleagues, survive Michigan’s punishing winters, and keep pace with the relentless rhythm of American life. She taught herself to drive to work through heavy snow, and she leaned on the family, friends, and colleagues who steadied her along the way.
Even now, with an ocean between her and home, she keeps one foot planted in Filipino soil. She volunteers as a teacher of Wika at Paaralang Pilipino in Michigan, helping Filipino-American adults and children hold on to their language and heritage. She serves as President of the UNIFFIED Michigan Chapter and Publication Director of UNIFFIED Inc., an international teachers’ organization, while still backing school projects back in the Philippines.
The recognition has kept pace with the work. She chaired part of the PAASCU accreditation for Philippine School Bahrain and, at the International Multidisciplinary Research Conference held at the Metropolitan College of New York in May 2025, was named Best Research Presenter, took third place for Best Abstract, and second place for Best Research Paper. The Trailblazer Award and Service Award followed.
What the road out taught her
Ask her where all of this is heading, and the answer is quieter than you might expect. Despite the American career and the international network, Leda still pictures retiring in the Philippines with Eric. Roots, she believes, do not loosen with distance.
That belief shapes the advice she offers other Filipinos abroad, spoken like someone who has weathered every hardship on the list. “Never lose sight of your purpose,” she says. “There will be moments of loneliness, uncertainty, financial struggles, and personal sacrifices, but remain steadfast in your faith and values. Be wise in managing your finances, choose your relationships carefully, and surround yourself with people who genuinely support your growth and well-being.”
She wants her kababayans to measure themselves generously, and by the right yardstick. “Work with integrity, continue learning, and never stop believing that every hardship has a purpose,” she says. “Above all, remember why you started your journey and let your family, your dreams, and your faith inspire you to persevere.”
For a woman who once left home because a compliment turned cruel, it is a fitting philosophy. Success, in the end, was never the title or the award. It was the lives she lifted along the way, and the daughters watching their mother drive straight into the storm.
