Welcome 2014-2015 ECPN officers!

The Emerging Conservation Professionals Network recently initiated a new year of activities with our first series of meetings for new and returning officers. The officers of 2014-2015 are very grateful to all the outgoing officers who have worked so hard in their 2013-2014 term: Anisha Gupta, Saira Haqqi, Carrie McNeal, Kendall Trotter, and especially our out-going chair, Eliza Spaulding. We wish you the best and hope to see you involved with future AIC and ECPN activities!

Meet the 2014-2015 ECPN officers:
Megan Salazar-Walsh (ECPN Chair) is specializing in paintings conservation at Buffalo State (Class of 2014). She is completing her 3rd-year internship at two sites, beginning at the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands, and currently at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. After completing her masters in September she will be joining The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL as an assistant conservator. Megan is passionate about helping emerging professionals navigate the field of conservation and she has previously served as an Outreach officer and as Vice-chair for ECPN.
Michelle Sullivan (ECPN Professional Education and Training Co-officer) is a third-year graduate fellow specializing in the conservation of works on paper with a minor concentration in photographic materials at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC). She is currently a graduate intern at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and will spend her third year at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Michelle has previously served as ECPN Regional Liaison to Southern California and Graduate Liaison to WUDPAC.
Heather Brown (ECPN Vice Chair) is a graduate fellow in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, majoring in photographic materials and minoring in paper. She is currently completing her third-year internship at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and in the fall will begin as Mellon Fellow in Paper Conservation at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Heather has previously served as ECPN Outreach Coordinator (2010-2011), ECPN PMG Liaison (2012-2014), and Health and Safety Committee Student Member (2012-2014).
Amy Hughes (ECPN Outreach Co-Officer) graduated from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center with an MA in Art History and an Advanced Certificate in Art Conservation (Class of 2014). This summer, Amy is a Smithsonian Graduate Fellow at the Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington, D.C. In September, she will begin an Andrew W. Mellon Conservation Fellowship in paper conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is Amy’s first year serving ECPN.
Fran Ritchie (ECPN Professional Education and Training Co-Officer, focusing on Webinars) is an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Objects Conservation at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Fran graduated from Buffalo State College with an MA in Art Conservation in 2013. Specializing in objects with a strong interest in organic materials, she spent her third year graduate internship at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Fran previously served as ECPN Communications Co-Officer (2013-2014).
Anne Schaffer (ECPN Outreach Co-Officer) is a graduate fellow at Buffalo State College, majoring in paintings conservation. She is currently completing a summer internship at the ICA –Art Conservation in Cleveland, Ohio, and will return to Buffalo to begin her second year in the fall. This is Anne’s first year serving ECPN, and she looks forward to the opportunity to learn from and assist other emerging conservators.
Laura Neufeld (ECPN Communications Co-Officer) is an assistant paper conservator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Before joining the MoMA staff she was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in paper conservation. She has worked as a contract conservator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY and the Field Museum in Chicago, IL. Laura completed internships at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Guggenheim Museum. She graduated with an M.A. in Art Conservation from Buffalo State College in 2013. This is Laura’s first year serving ECPN.
Ayesha Fuentes (ECPN Communications Co-Officer) is a recent graduate of the UCLA/Getty MA Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials, specializing in objects from South and Southeast Asia. She has completed internships in China, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Bhutan as well as the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has previously served as ECPN Professional Education and Training Co-Officer and is also a student member of AIC’s Emergency Committee.
 
The 2014-2015 ECPN officers look forward to providing ongoing professional development and educational activities. We also hope to increase our initiatives to connect with and meet the needs of our broad constituency. Please contact ECPN Chair, Megan Salazar-Walsh (salazar.walsh@gmail.com) with any thoughts, questions or comments for ECPN.