Dr. Marie Nicole Pareja Cummings was invited to the Sissi team as the plasters specialist in 2016. She completed her Ph.D. (2015) and M.A. (2013) at Temple University with a focus on Bronze Age Aegean Art and Archaeology and published her first book, Ape and Monkey Iconography in the Bronze Age Aegean, as a SIMA volume in 2017. She currently teaches for Dickinson College, Millersville University, and Pennsylvania State University, while she also serves as a consulting scholar for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology.

Nikki is expanding her scope to include both the Cyclades and the Greek Mainland. At Naxos, she serves as Project Manager for Stelida, Naxos Archaeological Project (SNAP). On the Mycenaean Mainland, she will serve as a lecturer for the American Center for Archaeology at Mycenae (ACAM) for Bronze Age Aegean plasters in 2019. She is also currently the director of the Plasters Analysis Project (PLAN).