Dr. Lightfoot grew up in Toronto and spent many childhood summers with her grandparents enjoying rural life in Bruce County. She studied at the University of Toronto (B.Sc. (Microbiology) at Trinity College), M.Sc. (Microbiology), and Ph.D (Community Health , Epidemiology)). She was a Resident Junior Fellow at Massey College in the University of Toronto. She was the Epidemiologist and Head of the Cardiac Data Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She moved to Sudbury in 1992, with her geologist husband, daughter, and dog. In Sudbury, she was the Senior Epidemiologist at the Northeastern Ontario Regional Cancer Centre, a Division Head of Human Sciences at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and a previous Director of, and Graduate Coordinator in, the School of Rural and Northern Health at Laurentian University. Currently, she is a Full Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, where the master's program in Interdisciplinary Health and the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Rural and Northern Health are offered and in which she teaches critical appraisal, research methods, and preparing for the doctoral comprehensive examination. She enjoys working with doctoral students who wish to write paper-based theses preferably utilizing qualitative methods and masters students who aim to write major papers. She is delighted to work with graduate students who write very well and aim to complete their graduate degrees in a timely fashion. She conducts quantitative, qualitative (her passion), and mixed methods health research. Her research interests include: studies of patient, health care provider, and caregiver experiences, and satisfaction with treatment for: autoimmune conditions, hip, knee, and shoulder replacements, osteoporosis, various cancers, congenital heart diseases, other chronic diseases, and infectious diseases, in addition to occupationally-related compensation and return to work experiences. She is also interested in research about: the impact of congenital heart disease, the impact of wildfires and evacuations on communities, experiences with travel for health care, and occupational cohort studies. When not undertaking professional duties, much time is spent with her family, including her cats and dog, enjoying the Killarney area, and reading biographies and mysteries.
