Nina Owczarek is a graduate of the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Before joining the faculty at the University of Delaware, she was most recently Associate Conservator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum), where she worked for nine years. Her primary responsibility was the evaluation and preparation of artifacts for travel and display on loan. In 2016, she managed the international symposium, Engaging Conservation: Collaboration Across Disciplines, in honor of the Penn MuseumConservation Department's 50th-year anniversary. She was lead editor for the 2017 publication resulting from that event. 

Prior to the Penn Museum, Owczarek was Smithsonian Fellow in Conservation at the National Museum of African Art, Assistant Conservator at the Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center, and Graduate Intern at the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Owczarek has worked on various other short-term and private projects. 

Owczarek served as Secretary/Treasurer for the Object Specialty Group (2016-2020) and was a member of the Education and Training Committee (ETC member 2014-2020, Vice Chair 2018, Chair 2019), both of the American Institute of Conservation (AIC). She is a Fellow member of AIC.