Professor Deborah Leighton is a member of the Employment Relations Program in the Faculty of Arts and Science, at Queen’s University, teaching in the Master of Industrial Relations program since 1994. She has been a labour mediator and arbitrator since 1992 and is a named arbitrator for many parties including Air Canada and ACPA, University of Toronto and CUPE, and the Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAAT-Academic) and OPSEU.

In addition to her private practice as a mediator and arbitrator, Deborah has acted in these roles for a number of public boards. She is a listed arbitrator at the Ontario Crown Employees’ Grievance Settlement Board (since 1996). She served as a Vice-Chair, at the Ontario Public Service Grievance Board from 1992 to 2017. She served two terms as an Adjudicator, for the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal between 1992 and 1998.

Deborah’s education includes a BA in Law from Oxford University, and an LLM from the University of Texas at Austin.