Tolulope Oyesanya

Dr. Oyesanya is an Associate Professor at Duke University School of Nursing. She is trained as a PhD-prepared registered nurse and as a health services researcher with research interests that center on improving the health, wellbeing, and quality of life of diverse adult patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in acute and post-acute settings and their family caregivers. Her current research focuses on transitional care needs of patients with TBI discharged home from acute hospital care without inpatient rehabilitation and their families, with an emphasis on post-discharge improvements on patient quality of life, patient/family needs post-discharge, and self- and family-management of TBI-related health and health care. Her research also aims to address disparities in TBI-related patient and family outcomes, including disparities based on insurance, access to care, race/ethnicity, and language. Although trained as a qualitative researcher, she conducts mixed methods research, ranging from qualitative studies using community-engaged research to explore patient, family, and provider perspectives to quantitative studies to using big datasets to investigate predictors of TBI outcomes. As a result of her work, she was appointed to serve on several TBI best practices/clinical guidelines committees and expert panels. 

Dr. Oyesanya earned her BSN, MSN, and PhD in Nursing from University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Brain Injury Research at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA. Her research has been consistently supported by federal and internal awards. Dr. Oyesanya is actively involved in several professional organizations, including serving as Founder and Chair of the Transitional Care New Forming Group and Chair of the Career Development Networking Group within the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine; and as a member of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses and the International Brain Injury Association.