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Growing up, Sisimac traveled and lived in many different countries in Latin America and the US, but always came back to the indigenous community where her family is from in the highlands of Ecuador. Here is where her interest in mountain ecosystems began, and then later, it solidified during her undergraduate studies in Ecuador. Sisimac obtained her master’s from the University of Michigan’s School of Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) and then earned her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. During and after her Ph.D. (as an NSF PRFB), Sisimac worked on creating and maintaining long term climate change experiments in Andean highland ecosystems (i.e., páramo and puna).

In general, Sisimac’s research is focused on high elevation landscapes where understanding ecosystems processes is complex because of the interaction between climate, ecology, and human dynamics. To study these processes, she uses experiments and monitoring, observational studies, functional traits approaches, qualitative data collection and processing, and advanced statistics and modeling. Furthermore, she has worked and aims to continue working closely with Andean indigenous and farming communities to design and monitor ecological restoration programs, implement climate change simulation experiments, and propose adaptation strategies.

For fun, Sisimac loves to go on runs or do yoga, read sci-fi or fantasy books, and play with her energetic border collie, Maki.