Alexandria Doctor's Work With Hearing Impaired Kids Resonates

ALEXANDRIA, VA — For Dr. Jennifer Lightfoot of Alexandria, hearing loss hasn't held her back. In fact, it shaped her life's work and recently won her a 2019 Oticon Focus on People Award.

She told Patch her dream of being an audiologist started as a kid, because she's lived with hearing loss her whole life and was diagnosed at age 5. Lightfoot knew of Oticon through using the company's hearing aids when a friend and fellow audiologist nominated her for Oticon's award. Winning the award in the practitioner category solidified the belief in her work with hearing impaired children.

"The kids are the reason I do what I do," she told Patch.

Since 2013, Lightfoot has been an audiologist at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School, a tuition-free school serving the deaf and hard of hearing up to eighth grade at Gallaudet University's campus in DC. She sees over 100 kids at her job, conducting hearing tests, checking hearing equipment, teaching kids how to be responsible with the equipment, completing necessary paperwork and other duties.

At a minimum, kids undergo hearing tests once a year, but that can differ depending on their individual needs. She works with a wide range of kids and families, from hearing impaired to completely deaf and those who opt not to use hearing equipment.

This isn't the first time she's given back to the hearing impaired community. In her grad school days, she went to Guatemala to help fit hearing aids for hundreds of kids in underserved, rural areas. While it was difficult to know the impoverished kids had been lacking hearing care, her team made a difference.

"They were able to hear sounds they weren't able to hear before," she said.

This year was a busy one for Lightfoot, between her wedding and trip to Oticon’s Somerset, New Jersey headquarters to accept her award before Thanksgiving. Looking ahead to the future, she can't picture herself working in any other field.

"I'm honored and privileged to be working with the staff that I do and the kids and the families," she said.