Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
A state group selects a Seminole woman as Veterinarian of the Year.
By CHRISTINA K. COSDON
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 23, 2000
SEMINOLE -- Dr. Teresa Lightfoot claims she can't cook or change the floppy discs in her computer.
But she teaches, travels the world lecturing on bird and exotic animal medical care, treats injured wildlife at non-profit organizations and helps raise five sons -- all while maintaining her half of a two-veterinarian practice.
For all that and more, Lightfoot has been named the Florida Veterinary Medical Association's Veterinarian of the Year. The announcement was made at the association's 71st annual meeting and convention in Orlando recently.
Lightfoot, 47, said she loves her work and never runs out of energy for practicing, lecturing, writing and teaching her favorite subjects: birds and exotic animals.
She said her practice handles all kinds of birds, along with hedgehogs, prairie dogs, ferrets, chinchillas and a "whole lot of reptiles."
Lightfoot moved here in 1980 after graduating from the University of Missouri. She taught for eight years at St. Petersburg Junior College's veterinary technician program and started its avian program. She worked five years at Dr. Dean Moentman's Animal Hospital of Largo and in 1987 established her own practice, Avian & Animal Hospital of Bardmoor in Seminole. Two years later, she took on a partner, Dr. Lucy Bartlett.
"I find her just as inspiring today as I did when I was a new graduate a decade and a half ago," Bartlett said in a letter recommending Lightfoot for the honor. "She has been a mentor and a role model to me and many other professionals that strive to be above average veterinarians and outstanding parents at the same time. "Even after 18 years in practice," she wrote, "Teresa can often be found down at the clinic at two in the morning checking on a patient."
Bartlett praised Lightfoot's "unlimited compassion and boundless enthusiasm" and her teachings seasoned with her "unique and very humorous style."
Lightfoot is a regular speaker at national veterinary and avian veterinary associations and a frequent international lecturer. In the past few years, her lecture invitations have taken her to Sweden, Australia, Costa Rica, Italy and Brazil, where she gave her presentation in Spanish.
She has held numerous positions with local, state and national veterinary societies, boards and associations, including president of the Pinellas County Veterinary Medical Society in 1994 and board chair of the Florida Department of Veterinary Medicine from 1997 to 1999.
At home in Seminole, she and her husband, Chris Lane, a computer engineer, oversee a family that includes sons ranging from 11 to 20 and a 32-year-old adopted son, who is married and has a child. In recent years, the household has also included a number of foster children.
"Our house is like a survival place," Lightfoot said. Laughing, she added, "And as soon as they learn how to use the microwave, they're on their own."
Her only regret is that she doesn't have time for aerobatics in small planes. "You have to practice a lot to do that and be safe," she said. She worked her way through college, she said, piloting small charter planes and doing aerobatic demonstrations.
Other award recipients at the Florida Veterinary Medical Association convention included a Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Richard Brutus of Safety Harbor; and Gold Star Awards, for work in the advancement of veterinary medicine and the profession, to veterinarians including Dr. Don Morgan of Bluffs Animal Hospital in Belleair Bluffs and Dr. Michael Rumore of Florida Veterinary Clinic in St. Petersburg.