Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez is an indigenous Quechua weaver from Chinchero in the Cusco (Cuzco) region of Peru. Along with other Quechua weavers from Chinchero as well as international supporters, she helped to establish the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco) in 1996 as a non-profit organization. Since 1996, Nilda has served as director of the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco or CTTC. She has written two books on Peruvian weaving, and has co-authored a third on weaving elders of the Peruvian Andes. 

Nilda holds a degree from the National University of San Antonio Abad in Cusco, 1986. She was one of the first women from her community to attend university, as during this time only men were expected to continue on to higher education. Nilda has taught internationally at museums and universities in the US and Canada, including Cornell University and the Smithsonian. 

Dr. Elena Phipps is former Senior Museum Conservator in the Textile Conservation Department, Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA), where she worked for over 34 years. She is an independent textile scholar and curator, and currently teaches technical and cultural history of textiles in the Department of World Arts and Culture, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). She has a doctorate in Precolumbian Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University (1989), and was President of the Textile Society of America from 2011-2014. During her time at the MMA Elena worked on conservation and technical analysis of the museum collection, and developed a strong interest in the nature of material and technical issues in the context of culture history.  She was a major participant in the development of the Antonio Ratti Textile Center, the Museum’s textile study, storage and conservation facility which opened in 1995. In addition, she was a special curator of several  textile exhibitions, including The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork 1430-1830, (awarded the Alfred Barr Jr. Award for best exhibition catalogue 2004-2005 from the College Art Association, and the Mitchell Prize, in 2006) and The Interwoven Globe: worldwide textile trade 1500-1800 (MMA, 2013). In 2013, she was Guest Curator for the exhibition The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth: ancient threads/new directions at the Fowler Museum (UCLA) and was a curatorial consultant for the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe’s 2015 exhibition The Red that Colored the World, inspired in part by her publication Cochineal Red: the art history of a color (MMA 2010). Elena has numerous publications on textiles focusing on the relationship between materials and techniques, and culture history.

Lisa Goldberg, Goldberg Preservation Services, LLC, is a conservator in private practice with a focus on preventive care as well as health and safety issues. She has been involved in a wide range of conservation consultations and treatment projects to help resolve issues related to exhibit, support and storage, transport and environment for individuals and institutions of many sizes. She is a member of SPNHC and AAM, and is a Fellow of AIC and IIC. As long time editor of the AIC News, she regularly works with authors and various committees to help bring publication projects to fruition. Lisa is one of the founding members of the FAIC website, Storage Techniques for Art, Science, and History Collections (www.STASHc.com) and continues to serve the project as Editor-in-Chief. 

Kerith Koss Schrager is an objects conservator and Head of Conservation at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Kerith specializes in occupational health and safety for cultural heritage workers and has degrees in both Environmental Health Sciences (2022) and Conservation (2008) from New York University.  Prior to her current position, she was the owner of The Found Object Art Conservation, LLC and has also held positions with the Brooklyn Museum, Field Museum, and National Museum of Asian Art of the Smithsonian. Kerith also serves as adjunct faculty at the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is a Professional Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and a former Chair of both their Health & Safety Network and Conservators in Private Practice (CIPP) Specialty Group.

Nancy Odegaard served as Conservator, Head of Preservation Division at the Arizona State Museum and Professor of Anthropology, Materials Science & Engineering, Historic Preservation, and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona from 1983 to 2021. She previously worked at the Smithsonian Institution, Peabody Museum – Harvard University, and with many museums throughout the country and internationally on special projects, conservation assessments, workshops. She has received resident scholar awards from the Fulbright Commission, Getty Conservation Institute, Winterthur Museum, ICCROM- Rome, Canadian Conservation Institute, and University of London as well as receiving an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden in 2016. Among her many publications are books including The Care and Handling of Anthropological Collections (WAAC 1991), Materials Characterization Tests for Objects of Art and Archaeology (Archetype 2000, 2005, Kress Award), Old Poisons – New Problems A Museum Resource (Altamira 2005), Curating Human Remains: A Guide for Museums and Academic Institutions (Altamira 2006, Kress Award), and A Visual Dictionary of Artistic and Domestic Arts (Rowman & Littlefield 2022- American Alliance of Museums Award). She is currently Conservator Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona and continues to research, write, and conduct collaborative projects with museums and communities.

Helene Tello has worked as a freelance senior conservator since 2020. Starting her career in 1980, she opened her own conservation studio in 1983. She then moved on to the Vonderau Museum in Fulda, Germany. Subsequently, she looked after the Indian collections at the Ethnologisches Museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany, from 1998 to mid-2020. There, she encountered the topic of pesticides formerly used on objects. She conducts research on decontamination methods of such treated cultural assets as well as safe handling of them for everyone who must deal with them. Due to the opening of museum collections to indigenous people, who started collaborating with the museums as well as repatriating their cultural assets, her many years of expertise are extremely important in our time. Her knowledge is spread out through numerous journal contributions, teaching activities and lectures at home and abroad. From May through October 2024, she was in residence at the UCLA/Getty Conservation Program. There, she conducted research on the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) as part of her Fulbright scholarship. Her research takes place against the background of debates on neocolonialism that have risen in Germany and Europe and the demands of indigenous people to museums for collaboration and restitution of their cultural assets.

Melodi McAdams organizes the California Repatriation Community of Practice and the Tribally led Contamination & Repatriation Working group. She has her MA in anthropology with a focus in ethnography and 20 years of experience working for Tribal Governments and Museums on repatriation, Tribal Monitoring and cultural site protection.

David Hinkamp, MD, MPH (University of Michigan) is a Board-certified Occupational and Environmental Medicine specialist who has worked at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Cook County Hospital since the 1980’s

In 1988, Dr. Hinkamp helped found and direct health programs for Valerie Wellington’s Chicago Blues Coalition and later, Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation. In 1999, he founded the Health in the Arts Program at UIC School of Public Health. This program applies the Occupational Health approach to the work-related hazards in an underserved sectors of the visual and performing arts, as well as museum and collections professionals. In 2010, along with other health and safety experts, he wrote and edited the book, Health and Safety for Museum and Collections Professionals.

Dr. Hinkamp continues to work with local, national and international organizations on these issues. In 2024 he was elected President of the international Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) in London.

Mr. Ralph A. Froehlich, M.S., CIH, CSP, QEP, FAIHA, has more than thirty years of experience in the fields of environmental and occupational health and heads the industrial hygiene division of Helix Environmental, Inc.

Brandy Howard, PE, CIH, CSP, is the Group Manager of Industrial Hygiene and Asbestos at Terracon’s Denver office. Brandy holds a BS in Engineering and a MS in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. Brandy has been a consultant for over 15 years and works with clients in various industries to deliver cost-effective environmental, health, and safety solutions to support their operations. Brandy currently serves as the Vice Chair for the AIHA Museums and Cultural Heritage Industry Working Group and was a research partner on the Museum Poisons Test Kit project.

Marilen Pool is an objects conservator in private practice in Tucson, Arizona. She worked for the Arizona State Museum (ASM) Preservation Division for more than 20 years as Senior Project Conservator before retiring in 2024. She holds a PhD in Arid Lands Resource Sciences from the University of Arizona, an MA in Museum Studies, and is a graduate of the Sir Sanford Fleming Conservation Program in Canada. Before entering the field of conservation, Marilen worked as a Museum Curator and Director. Marilen is a former member of the AIC Health and Safety Committee. She has prepared pesticide use histories for ASM and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She recently transposed her extensive research on pesticide chemicals used in museums for online use on Museumspests.net in a relational database. 

Kate Compton-Gore is the NAGPRA Training Coordinator for the National NAGPRA Program and part of the NAGPRA team at the Museum of Northern Arizona. She received here PhD from Northern Arizona University focusing on NAGPRA policy, Indigenous environmental justice, and the ongoing problem of pesticide contamination in collections. She has supported NAGPRA compliance for the past 20 years both in and out of museum settings. In her role with the National NAGPRA Program, she supports Indian Tribes, NHOs, museums, and Federal agencies through training and guidance on the revised regulations. Throughout her career, Ms. Compton-Gore actively focuses on community engagement and support. She currently volunteers as the co-facilitator of the NAGPRA Community of Practice, dedicated to decreasing misunderstanding and hesitancy and fostering relationships and healing across the field.

Whitney Petrey is the Tribal Historian and Repatriation Coordinator for the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake. She has worked as an archaeologist and curator for agencies, cultural resource management companies, museums, and universities. She graduated with a B.A. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Anthropology and with an M.A. from East Carolina University in Maritime Archaeology with an emphasis in object conservation.

Maeve Moriarty has been a member of the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) since 2017 and works on the analysis of heritage objects for pesticide residues. She has published numerous articles on arsenic analysis and obtaining data for risk assessments.

Olivia Bascle is the manager of Preventive Conservation in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s (CWF) Historic Area. Using preventive conservation practices, her team cares for over 35 original and reconstructed 18th century properties as well as collections storage and warehouse spaces. Olivia works with many departments to ensure preservation needs are considered. Through her work at CWF, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and an internship at George Mason’s Gunston Hall, Olivia has years of experience with collections care and preventive project planning. She holds a BA in Anthropology from George Mason University and completed the Heritage Emergency and Response Training in 2022 run by the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and FEMA.

Maddie Cooper is the Associate Preventive Conservator at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) where she carries out preservation surveys and assessments and facilitates educational programming. Maddie has worked with a wide range of institutional and community collections. She held roles in conservation and collections at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and the Wolfsonian-FIU prior to specializing in preventive conservation in graduate school. Through her graduate career, she interned with the Disaster Research Center, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Midwest Art Conservation Center. Maddie holds an MS in Art Conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, a BA in Chemistry from the University of Delaware, and a BA in Art Conservation with a minor in Art History from the University of Delaware.

Megan Ramsey is the Collections Manager at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. In this role, Megan is responsible for organizing the first comprehensive collections catalog at the museum including the preservation, documentation and management of over 8,000 objects. Megan brings over a decade of experience in museums and a passion for improving preservation of and access to museum collections. Prior to joining EDM in 2020, Megan worked at Bishop Museum and Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaii; Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, Virginia; Greenbrier Historical Society in Lewisburg, West Virginia; and the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace in Hillsboro, West Virginia.

Paige Schmidt owns and works as an objects conservator for Dogwood Workshop, LLC. She is also the Wooden Objects Conservator for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, which provides preservation and conservation support to all of the state’s parks and over 30 historic sites. Paige previously worked as an objects conservator at The Mariners’ Museum and Park, where she helped establish the museum’s current conservation program and worked collaboratively across departments to establish, update, and implement preservation policies and procedures. She holds an MA from Buffalo State University with a certificate in conservation. Her training includes internships at several historic house and living history museums, including the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Frick Collection, and Biltmore.

Kelly McCauley Krish is the Preventive Conservator at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where she helps implement preventive practices in the historic houses and fine arts museum. Prior to joining CW, she was the Senior Preventive Conservator at the National Museum Cardiff and a Preventive Conservation Specialist at the Image Permanence Institute, where she offered consulting services, research, and educational opportunities to support sustainable preservation practices. Kelly holds an MS from the University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation and a BA in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington.

Rebecca Fifield is Senior Manager, Collection Management at The New York Public Library. She has over thirty years of experience working with both large and small library, art, and history collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She received an M.A. in Museum Studies from The George Washington University in 1999, where she received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to study collections care administration. A frequent speaker on emergency preparedness and collection care topics, she is the author of "Emergency Management" in Preventive Conservation: Collection Storage. A Professional Associate of AIC, Becky is former Chair of the American Institute for Conservation’s Collection Care Network and former Chair of the Alliance for Response NYC.   

Colleen Grant is the Senior Collection Manager at the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Prior to joining NYPL, she was a Collections Inventory Project Leader at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. She holds an M.A. in Museum Studies with a concentration in Collections Management from The George Washington University and a B.A. in Art History from Loyola University Maryland. She is currently in her second term as the Social Media Chair for AIC’s Preventive Care Network.

Deborah Straussman is the Sr Registrar at the New York Public Library and has worked at NYPL for sixteen years. She worked at The Museum of Modern Art in the exhibitions administration department before coming to NYPL. She holds an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University, and a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Barnard College. She is an active member of the Association of Registrars and Collection Specialists, serving as the conference co-chair in 2022 and on the conference committee in 2021 and 2023.

Lauren Anne Horelick has been an objects conservator at NASM since 2012. She has a BFA in Sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute, a BA in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware, and an MA in archaeological and ethnographic conservation from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)/Getty Conservation Master’s program. Lauren completed graduate internships at the Alaska State Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. She also served as the Andrew W. Mellon Postgraduate Fellow in Objects Conservation at Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian. Lauren’s research interests include studying the effects of adhesives on cultural materials, diagnostic imaging, and exploring cross-disciplinary adaptive treatment techniques for ephemeral technological materials. Prior to becoming an objects conservator Lauren worked in the field of architectural restoration as a sculptor and mold maker.

Angela Campbell is the Paper Conservator and Project Inspector at the Historic Architecture, Conservation and Engineering Center (HACE) of the National Park Service. She is responsible for the conservation and preservation of works on paper in over 80 historic homes and collections in the northeast region. Angela was previously an Assistant Conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she spent seven years working in the Sherman Fairchild Center for Works on Paper and Photograph Conservation. Angela holds an MA degree and Certificate of Advanced Study in Art Conservation from Buffalo State College.

Linnaea E. Saunders is a Conservator of Paintings in private practice in Los Angeles. Following her training at the Courtauld Institute of Art (1999), Linnaea worked for the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Mauritshuis, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). In 2007, she established her independent conservation studio, The Conservator's Easel, LLC, specializing in the treatment of easel paintings and frames. Linnaea has experience treating  European, Latin American, American, and Modern and Contemporary paintings on canvas, wood panel, copper, and paperboard support. She provides services to major institutions, smaller museums and historical societies, galleries, collectors, and private individuals. Linnaea regularly hosts graduate interns in her studio as part of their training.

With nearly 15 years of experience, Rebecca has worked with a variety of collections in storage and on exhibition in diverse media. Her career began as a registrar for an historical society in Florida. After graduating with her MA in Museum Studies from The George Washington University, Kennedy worked in preservation and collections management at the Smithsonian Institution for 11 years. Her projects consisted of rehousing, exhibition installation, offsite storage management, object cataloging, deaccessioning and much more. 

In 2016, Kennedy completed a training in First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAC) by the International Centre for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). This FAC course expanded her impact in helping institutions prepare for and respond to emergencies and disasters. She also served on the inaugural team of the Smithsonian’s Preparedness and Response in Collections Emergency (PRICE) for two years and the steering committee for the DC Alliance for Response. She is a Professional Associate (PA) of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC).