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Professor Sisto received her Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy (PT) at St. Louis University, St. Louis Missouri in 1979. She began her clinical practice at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation where she advanced from a staff physical therapist, to the clinical coordinator of education, to the senior in electrotherapy, to the supervisor of prosthetics and orthotics to various assistant, associate directors of PT departments. She pursued her Masters degree in Physical Therapy at New York University and graduated magna cum laude in 1985 with a specialization in pathokinesiology. Dr. Sisto received the Mary E. Switzer pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) 1991-92. She then received a NIDRR doctoral training scholarship to pursue her doctoral studies at New York University where she successfully defended her dissertation in October 1996 and graduated magna cum laude in 1997 with a specialization in pathokinesiology, biomechanics and motor control. Professor Sisto pursued a post-doctoral fellowship with the NIH Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Cooperative Research Center from 1996-97. She then assumed the Directorship position of the Human Performance and Movement Analysis Laboratory at the Research Division of the Henry H. Kessler Foundation, Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Center. Dr. Sisto developed this laboratory over the next 10 years after which she assumed her current position here at Stony Brook University in September, 2007.

Dr. Sisto has been a Physical Therapist for over 28 years with a specialization in pathokinesiology. Dr. Sisto has focused her work on the evaluation of movement using 3D movement analysis technology, electromyography, kinetic analysis and metabolic exercise capacity. Her laboratory will be designed to explore human movement of persons with disabilities, pursue the advancement of rehabilitation for improvement of mobility and, ultimately, the quality of life. She has received numerous grants in the area of secondary complications after a disability such as obesity and cardiac risk factors after spinal cord injury (SCI), overuse injuries of the upper limbs due to wheelchair propulsion in paraplegia and tetraplegia and the recovery of ambulation after incomplete SCI. Previous grants examined the effect of chemodenervation on spasticity in SCI, traumatic brain injury and stroke; the effect of constraint induced movement therapy after stroke; the use of FES in the recovery of muscle and bone after SCI; the effect on exercise on chronic venous insufficiency; and activity limitations in chronic fatigue syndrome.

Dr. Sisto also has a strong history in mentoring medical residents and students, students in physical therapy and biomedical engineering as well as post-doctoral fellows in physical therapy, motor control, occupational therapy, biomedical engineering. Of note, she is the Project Director of the Advanced Rehabilitation Research and Training Center grant funded by NIDRR to train post-doctoral fellows in the area of neuromusculoskeletal rehabilitation. Dr. Sisto was voted “Best Mentor” by the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UMDNJ/NJMS in 2007.

Stemming from Dr. Sisto’s interest in prosthetics and orthotics, she taught in this content at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in the department of Physical Therapy for seven years as well as courses in electrotherapy and pain management. Professor Sisto also taught at New York University in the area of kinesiology and theoretical bases for the profession as well as at Columbia University, where she taught neuroscience to the physical therapy students for four years.

Dr. Sisto has a strong professional history of service with several organizations where she serves on their boards such as the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, the National Stroke Association, Rehabilitation and Recovery Advisory Board and Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society. She also serves on the Committee on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), the steering committee for the Northern NJ Model System Spinal Cord Injury System, the American Spinal Cord Injury Association journal committee, the nomination committee of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), and the research committee of the NJ and national APTA.

Dr. Sisto has served on various NIH review committees and is the Chair of the Rehabilitation Advisory Board grant review panel. She has recently completed her term on the Scientific Review Committee of the APTA. She has been an invited member of the Mobility Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center and the Wheelchair Propulsion state of the science conferences. Dr. Sisto has co-directed a conference on rehabilitation research ethics.

Dr. Sisto has published 90 abstracts and 46 publications in various rehabilitation, biomechanics, and engineering journals. She is the chief editor of the book entitled “Spinal Cord Injuries: Management and Rehabilitation” published by Mostby/Elsevier to be released in 2008.