Education

Faculty in the Department of Statistical Sciences are recognized across Canada and internationally for their innovations in statistics, actuarial science, and data science pedagogy and curricula.  They are engaged in scholarship that explores the impacts of using new computational approaches in teaching, integrating new educational technologies, creating inclusive learning environments, and immersing students in experiential learning.  Our professors are applying learning science to design courses that engage students in statistics and data science across disciplines, support them in becoming experts in the field, and prepare them with the skills they will need to adapt their expertise to solve problems we have not yet imagined.

Faculty

Alison Gibbs
Professor Gibbs is interested in the teaching and learning of Statistics and Data Science at all levels, from primary through graduate school. She is engaged in various projects related to data science in schools, online learning, inverted classrooms, statistics curriculum development, achieving adaptive expertise, and the development of professional identity.

Bethany White
Associate Professor White’s research interests involve the impact of technology-enhanced and simulation activities on student learning and attitudes toward statistics. She also has pedagogical interest in the quantitative preparation of students to effectively engage with statistics in life sciences research.
Gracia Dong

Gracia Dong

Assistant Professor Dong's research interests involve healthcare access equity, vulnerable population modelling, statistics education, and quasi-random number generation.

Karen Huynh Wong

Assistant Professor Huynh Wong is interested in the application and union of pedagogical best practices in statistics education, particularly at the introductory levels. She is devoted to exploring and developing strategies that actively engages student learning, providing them with the foundational skills that can be carried forward in their statistics careers.

Katherine Daignault

Assistant Professor Daignault’s pedagogical interest is in professional skill development including statistical communication and applied data analysis through authentic experiences and activities. She is involved in a number of endeavours to develop student-created resources designed to support students in learning to code and to reinforce conceptual knowledge of statistics. Her academic background includes the development of causal inference methodologies to investigate disparities in quality of hospital care.

Michael Moon
Assistant Professor Moon's academic interests lie at the intersection of teaching statistics and statistical communication, particularly in social contexts. His research projects include developing the 'mverse' R package for multiverse analysis, and multi-state modeling of opioid usage and addiction. He also explores the impact of parental loss on life expectancy across different ethnic groups.

Nathalie Moon
Assistant Professor Moon's pedagogy focuses on embedding experiential learning opportunities in a range of courses, developing students' statistical communication skills, and prioritizing student mental health and wellbeing to create a supportive learning environment.  She is also engaged in implementing auto-grading of statistical programming assignments to enhance the feedback/learning cycle. Her research focuses on best practices in the above areas and more, to enhance student learning and improve outcomes.

Nathan Taback
Professor Taback is currently the Associate Chair of undergraduate studies in the Department of Statistical Sciences and serves as a Special Advisor to the Dean of Arts and Science on Computational and Data Science Education. His research interests include data science and statistics pedagogy, communicating data, and the application of computational and data science methods across disciplines.

Samantha-Jo Caetano
Assistant Professor Caetano focuses on improving data literacy and also develops statistical outreach activities to engage undergraduate, high school and grade school students to the world of data and statistics outside of the classroom.

Scott Schwartz
Assistant Professor Schwartz's focus is on modernizing the statistical sciences curriculum, with a focus on computation and modern advances in AI technology.
Vicki Zhang

Vicki Zhang

Associate Professor Zhang is currently the Associate Chair in Undergraduate Studies (Actuarial Science). Her research interests include insurance and financial regulations, embedded ethics and narrative/arts-integrated education, predictive modeling and AI practices and ethics.