Preventive Conservation Assessments Webinar Series

Wendy is a conservator in private practice, specializing in preventive conservation. Wendy is highly experienced in identifying vulnerabilities and risks to collections and in setting realistic and achievable objectives for risk reduction, collections accountability, and preventive conservation.

In 1989, after holding positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Smithsonian Institution, she established Wendy Jessup and Associates, Inc. to provide preventive conservation services. Since then, she has consulted to a large number of museums, archives, and historic sites within the United States and internationally.

Since 1994, Wendy has completed more than 65 collections conservation and preservation assessments of small and medium-sized museums of all types across the United States through Collections Assessment Program of the IMLS administered by FAIC and its predecessor Conservation Assessment Program, administered by Heritage Preservation. Many of these assessments have been completed in collaboration with Michael Henry. In 1997, the Getty Conservation Institute engaged Wendy and Michael to conduct a Conservation Assessment of the National Museum of Tunisia to test the program methodology for use internationally.

Michael Henry specializes in preservation of historic buildings and preventive conservation environments for museum collections.  His work includes museums and historic buildings in India, Rwanda, Cuba, Brazil, Tunisia and throughout the United States.

Michael has been in private practice for the past four decades, as Principal Engineer/Architect at Watson & Henry Associates in Greenwich, NJ and more recently through Michael C. Henry, LLC, in Lancaster, PA.  For the past two decades, Michael has taught building pathology and diagnostics in the Department of Historic Preservation at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, where he is an Adjunct Professor.  He has been a guest lecturer in the Graduate Program in Art Conservation at Winterthur/University of Delaware and a visiting teacher at the Centre for Sustainable Heritage, Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London. With S. Maekawa and V. L. Beltran, Michael is co-author of Environmental Management for Collections: Alternative Conservation Strategies for Hot and Humid Climates (Getty Conservation Institute. 2015).

In 2024, Michael received the Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award for Excellence in Education and Training of Conservation Professionals from the American Institute for Conservation.

Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández is a heritage conservator and currently serves as the founding Director-General of the Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Puerto Rico (CENCOR), where he is responsible for the institutional development of the Center, strategic planning, as well as the execution of special preservation and conservation projects, services, research, and initiatives. He also serves as an advisor to cultural institutions on technical matters related to the conservation of cultural heritage and is an Adjunct Professor in preservation technology and materials conservation at the Graduate Program in Architectural Conservation and Rehabilitation at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.  

Before being appointed as the first Director-General of the CENCOR, Héctor worked on several heritage conservation and research projects in both the public and private sectors in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Puerto Rico. He is currently an active member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), where he serves as Program Chair of the Architecture Speciality Group (ASG) and is a member of the Code of Ethics Task Force. He is also a member of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and the Association for Preservation Technology International (APT). 

Héctor holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation with a concentration in Architectural Materials Conservation from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.EnvD. in Environmental Design-Architecture with a double major in History of the Americas from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. He also studied Conservation Science courses within Georgetown University and the Universitá degli Studi de Firenze. 

Justine is the Program Manager for Preservation of Indigenous Collections at UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. Justine has worked in museums and cultural heritage for more than a decade, specializing in collections care and green museum practices. She holds a BA in Art History from San Francisco State University and earned a dual Master's degree in Museum Studies and Business Administration from John F. Kennedy University. Justine is a contract Researcher at the Getty Conservation Institute and is the current Co-chair of the American Institute for Conservation Sustainability Committee.