Meet our Team

Principal Investigator

Photograph of Dr. Sajobi

Dr. Tolulope Sajobi

Dr. Tolulope Sajobi is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Departments of Community Health Sciences and Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary. He is also an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba and the University of Lethbridge Faculty of Health Sciences. 

Dr. Sajobi is the Director of the Person-Centered Methods research lab through which he leads a research program focused on 1) measurement and analysis of behavioral and patient-reported outcomes; 2) classification and prediction methodologies for developing clinical decision support tools, and 3) design and analysis of randomized clinical trials. His methodological research has found applications in several disease domain areas, including neuroepidemiology, neurology, cardiology, and orthopedics.  

​ As a biostatistician, Dr. Sajobi provides statistical leadership on a variety of national and international clinical and population health research projects. He has more than 130 peer-reviewed publications, has given over 200 conference presentations, and has held research funds worth approximately $1.3million as a principal investigator and > $16 million as co-investigator/stats lead on several national/international funded projects. A recipient of several academic and community awards, Dr. Sajobi was honored with Calgary Top 40 under 40 award in 2018. 

ttsajobi@ucalgary.ca


Graduate Students

Joel's picture

Joel Adekanye

Joel is a third-year PhD Candidate in Community Health Sciences (Epidemiology Specialization). He is a medical graduate from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, with a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, USA.

His research interests are at the intersection of shared decision-making, patient-reported outcomes measures, and clinical trials in cardiovascular care.

Joel.adekanye@ucalgary.ca

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Gabriel Afriyie

Gabriel is a second-year doctoral student in the Community Health Sciences program with a specialization in Biostatistics. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. He has an MSc. in financial mathematics and statistics from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. He also received his MSc. in statistics from the University of Windsor. Gabriel’s research interests include the use of modern machine learning algorithms to predict group memberships in multivariate high-dimensional longitudinal data.

gabriel.afriyie@ucalgary.ca

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Ayoola Ademola

Ayoola is a fourth-year doctoral student in biostatistics in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. He obtained a Bachelors in Statistics from the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and MSc in Mathematical Statistics from Georgia Southern University at Statesboro (United States). Prior to graduate school, Ayoola had over 10 years of professional experience in banking and credit risk analysis in Lagos, Nigeria.

Ayoola's doctoral research, which is jointly supervised by Drs Sajobi & Hildebrand, focuses on methodological issues that arise in the design of registry-based trials. In particular, he's exploring novel approaches for using clinical and population-based registries for the development of affordable and novel trial designs that can be used to answer important clinical questions. ​

Ayoola is also a research analyst with PrEvention of posttraumatic contractuRes with Ketotifen 2 (PERK 2) study, an international multicenter randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of ketitofen in treating elbow dislocations/contractures. 

ayoola.ademola@ucalgary.ca

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Olayinka Imisioluwa Arimoro

Olayinka is a second-year master's student in the Biostatistics program. His research combines unsupervised machine learning models with item-response theory models to evaluate differential item functioning (DIF) effects in patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).

Olayinka loves to teach and help others become better. He is a Guided Project Instructor for the Coursera Guided Project Network with over 36 courses and 63,000+ learners. 

Outside of his research and school work, he leads a not-for-profit organization, Predicare Steun Foundation, which he founded in 2018. The foundation aims to bridge the gap in the education space, particularly access to quality education,  for children between the ages of 9 and 16 years old in low-income communities in Nigeria.

olayinka.arimoro@ucalgary.ca

Olayinka's: CV; LinkedIn

 

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Ayo Okikiolu

Ayo completed a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology degree at the University of Alberta,
Edmonton. He is currently in his first year of a Master of Science degree with a specialization in Neuroscience at the University of Calgary and is currently under the supervision of Dr. Bijoy Menon and Dr. Tolulope Sajobi. Ayo’s graduate work will explore outcomes assessment in acute ischemic stroke patients.

Before starting his program, he worked as a Research Assistant in the lab and assisted in patient-reported outcome measures, coronary artery disease, and stroke research.

ayooluwanimi.okikiolu@ucalgary.ca

Photograph of Mili Roy in front of a white wall

Mili Roy

Mili is a fourth-year PhD student in Biostatistics in the department of Mathematics and Statistics. Her thesis focuses on investigating methodologies using Gaussian copula on correlated mixed outcomes. She has been working as a graduate teaching assistant in the department of Mathematics and Statistics since 2018. Prior to this, she completed her master’s in Statistics. Her M.Sc. thesis concerned ‘conditional dependence in joint modeling of Longitudinal non-Gaussian outcomes’. She also completed a B.Sc and an M.Sc in Applied Statistics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mili Roy worked as a data analyst at the department of psychology and as a clinical research coordinator with Alberta Health Services in 2021. Her research interest includes joint modeling, Gaussian copula, multivariate analysis, longitudinal data, and Applied Statistics.

roym@ucalgary.ca


Research Staffs

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Tim Biziaev

Tim is a full-time statistical analyst with our lab. Prior to joining us, Tim graduated with a master's degree in Biostatistics from the University of Calgary in 2023, with his thesis pertaining to the configuration of Bayesian variable selection regression models.

He obtained his BSc in Mathematics from MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2018. He worked as a research assistant for Alberta Health Services in 2021/22, where he aided in the development and performed validation of late-stage cancer risk prediction models.

timofei.biziaev@ucalgary.ca; Tim's LinkedIn

 

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Nirav Bhagat

Nirav works with our research group to assist with administering and coordinating the lab's projects, including the StrokePRO and OPCM-CAD projects. He obtained a Bachelor of Medical Sciences from Western University in 2020 before completing the Master of Biomedical Technology program with the University of Calgary in 2022.

In addition, he is a research administrator and study coordinator for Dr Stephen Wilton of the Department of Cardiac Sciences, where he works on clinical trials and studies related to heart rhythm disorders and cardiac implantable devices.

nirav.bhagat1@ucalgary.ca; Nirav's LinkedIn

 

Maria

Maria Dalton, MSc

Raised in quiet Prince Edward Island, Maria brings her unique rural insight to all the work she does. Currently, a Clinical Research Coordinator with the Libin Cardiovascular Institute's APPROACH Research Group (Dr Wilton, Dr James) and Person-Centered Methods lab (Dr Sajobi), the work she is involved in investigates the role of patient-reported outcomes and experience measures in cardiac care, seeking to improve clinical care. 

She is passionate about community/patient engagement, teaching, and mentorship, and her research interests include healthcare system improvement, complex chronic illness, geospatial analysis, scientific misinformation and public health. 

Outside of the research sphere, Maria works as a freelance sports photographer with significant experience covering both national and international speed skating, skiing, and university sporting events. When she's not working or researching, Maria loves spending time outside being active - be it on her skis or on her bike

maria.dalton1@ucalgary.ca; Maria's LinkedIn