Sor Isolina Ferré Aguayo (5 September 1914 – 3 August 2000) was a Puerto Rican Roman Catholic religious sister.

As part of her religious work, Ferré traveled back and forth between Puerto Rico and the United States, serving as an abbess in Cabo Rojo and New York City.

After working as a member of New York City's Committee Against Poverty, to which she was appointed by Mayor John Lindsay, Ferré decided in 1969, to set her permanent residence in Ponce, specifically in the low-income sector of La Playa.

[4] Her mother contracted Filaria, which limited her social and personal activities, therefore Saro, Ferré's older sister, became responsible for the upbringing of the younger children.

When she was three years old, Ferré entered a religious school named Colegio de las Madres del Sagrado Corazón, where she became interested in the habits practiced by the nuns.

[5] When she was young, Ferré believed that poverty was a voluntary economic state of being however, during her adolescence she realized that it wasn't so and that she was wrong in her way of thinking.

Her health was affected because of her strenuous activities and after she went to her doctor and had a radiology done, she was told that she had damage in her lungs and was recommended that she take one year of rest.

[9] Interested in this second project, she organized a group of delivery boys and shoe shiners and founded a candy distribution system.

After arriving in Philadelphia, she spent her first year involved in a series of religious activities, including some "spiritual exercises" where she was only allowed to speak in the confessional.

[19] The community elected her as their official representative in New York's "Committee Against Poverty", but she declined the offer and granted the position to another Puerto Rican resident.

Ferré completed a sociology master's degree at Fordham University, submitting a thesis based in the strengths and weaknesses of Puerto Rican families that faced conditions of discrimination and poverty after migrating to the city.

[21] Her final work in the United States took place in Chicago, where she coached a group of Puerto Rican community leaders.

In 1968, she returned to Barrio La Playa in Ponce where the Ferré family had built a dispensary to treat vesicular conditions.

[23] Ferré promoted cultural events, reestablished traditional celebrations and organized activities focused on theatrics, ballet, modeling and sports.

Seeking to address a personnel deficiency in nearby petrochemical factories, Teodoro Moscoso suggested to them the creation of a welding school.

The institution was built adjacent to Puerto Rico Iron Works, a company that belonged to the Ferré family, and which remained active until 1972.

Ferré and the community received a grant of one million dollars to build the institution, which was built in a lot in barrio El Ciclón.

[28] In 1975, the Center faced some financial losses, following a fire and a flood, when Hurricane Eloise passed hit Puerto Rico.

[30] Ferré established the center's headquarters in a building that used to belong to the employees of her father, which had been renamed Dispensario San Antonio years earlier.

During the 1980s, most of the funds for Centros Sor Isolina Ferré were provided by Rafael Hernández Colón, who promoted the establishment of a new center in Caimito, Puerto Rico.

[35] One day, Ferré decided to intervene in a hostage situation, where two young men were threatening to open fire if the police entered their house.

[37] Based on this, a group of officers moved to one of the residences that comprised Caimito's center, visiting the other houses on a daily basis.

[36] When Hurricane Hugo struck Puerto Rico, Centros Sor Isolina Ferré cultivated 10,000 trees in a greenhouse, intending to help the government deal with the deforestation left by the storm.

[44] Ferré's efforts in La Playa were written and chronicled in Puerto Rican books and newspapers, as well as the publications of other Latin American countries including the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

[45][46] Her work was recognized by President Bill Clinton who awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony in the White House, an honor previously also bestowed upon her brother Luis A. Ferré.