Dr. Joelle Wickens named WUDPAC Associate Director

We are pleased to report that Dr. Joelle Wickens (Winterthur Preventive Conservator and Affiliated Faculty Member) began her one-year term as the WUDPAC Associate Director on January 1, 2018. For nearly a decade, students and colleagues have benefited from Joelle’s genuine enthusiasm for and thoughtful focus on curriculum development (especially but not limited to preventive conservation), delivery, assessment, and reform and her deep commitment to student and faculty success. As Associate Director, Joelle will be responsible for curriculum oversight and support for student and faculty learning and teaching.

In addition to her Associate Director duties, Joelle continues to shape and strengthen our preventive curriculum to include new sessions on exhibit planning, materials characterization, mold risk and identification, vibration monitoring, and 3D printing mounts. A key aspect of some of these new sessions is bringing current students face to face with practicing preventive conservators. Collaborative research opportunities where students can address real-life preventive conservation challenges are now an integral component of second year preventive conservation education. Many of these projects serve institutions quite local to Winterthur and the University of Delaware. They identify preventive conservation needs at these institutions, for instance: the need for environmental monitoring and analysis; the need for the development of an integrated pest management plan; the need for an audio/visual material preservation plan; the need for a completed Facilities Report; the need to reorganize storage. They match student learning goals to these needs. A one-semester project is then co-designed by the student and the institution, carried out and brought to conclusion with a report and presentation. Finally, a pilot program to train those interested in majoring in preventive conservation is ready to launch for a pioneering student.

More information about Joelle’s research and teaching can be found on her staff page here. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Wickens on her appointment as Associate Director.