TARRANT Team

Program Director

James A Dickinson MB BS, PhD, CCFP, FRACGP

Dr. Dickinson is the director of TARRANT since 2003. He is a family physician trained in epidemiology, with special interests in preventive medicine and screening. He was a member of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care from 2009-2016. His clinical practice is in the University of Calgary Family Practice Teaching Clinic at Sheldon Chumir centre.

He took over the Alberta Community respiratory surveillance program from Dr. Mike Tarrant, and has helped it to transform it by joining the national Sentinel Physician Surveillance Network, which adds on the case-control study that measures vaccine effectiveness, for influenza since 2006 and now COVID-19.

Email: dickinsj@ucalgary.ca

Research Assistant

Aunshu Goyal, MB BCh BAO

Aunshu is an international medical graduate from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She has been working in clinical research for the past 5 years in psychiatry, oncology, and infectious diseases with an interest in finding better pharmacologic treatments to contribute towards improving patient care.

Research Coordinator

Emilie Toews, MSc, MPH

Emilie is an early-career infectious disease researcher and epidemiologist holding both a Master of Science from University of Calgary and a Master of Public Health from Imperial College London. She has been working with University of Calgary since 2024, lending her research capabilities to multiple projects with the Centre for Health Informatics, Department of Family Medicine, and Department of Community Health Sciences. Emilie is also currently pursuing a PhD in Community Health Sciences with a Specialization in Epidemiology.

Research Assistant

Tolulope Ogunniyi, MD MPH

Originally from Nigeria, Tolulope obtained her medical degree in Russia, then a Master in Public Health from England. She is passionate about public health, especially community health. She has worked as a Research Assistant in various clinical research projects – psychiatry, internal medicine, and public health over the last 8 years. She looks forward to contributing to public health research and knowledge as well as being a public health professional with a special interest in Family medicine.

Research Administrative Assistant

Zoltan Kovacs, BA

Zoltan is a graduate from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with a Management & Society minor. He has been with the University of Calgary for almost 20 years and held roles as a Research Associate and Administrative Assistant.