Emergency Readiness in Collections Stewardship
May 6-7, 2026
| Description | Agenda | Faculty Bios | Logistics |
Instructors include NEDCC’s Preservation Specialists and Conservators, all of whom have extensive online teaching experience.
Bexx Caswell-Olson, Director of Book Conservation
Bexx Caswell-Olson has over fifteen years’ experience in the preservation and conservation field, and previously served as Special Collections Conservator at Michigan State University. Bexx confers with NEDCC clients to develop appropriate book conservation treatment proposals and manages the Center’s team of talented book conservators. She is an approved CAP Assessor for the Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) Program through the American Institute for Conservation. Bexx earned a Certificate in Bookbinding from the North Bennet Street School, an MS in Library Science with a focus on Preservation Management from Simmons College, and a BA in Non-fiction Writing and Journalism from Eugene Lang College, New School University. Bexx previously served as the president of the Guild of Book Workers and is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC).
Monique Fischer, Senior Photograph Conservator
Monique Fischer has specialized in the conservation of photographic materials since 1994. In collaboration with the Image Permanence Institute, she was awarded a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1997 for the development of A-D Strips, a tool that detects deterioration in acetate film. Monique lectures extensively on photograph conservation in the US and abroad, and has been awarded two fellowships by the J. Paul Getty Trust to investigate the longevity of digital output media. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). Monique received a B.A. in Chemistry from Smith College, and a M.S. in Art Conservation with a concentration in Photographic Materials from the Winterthur / University of Delaware Program.
Jesse Keel, Associate Preservation Specialist
Jesse Keel is based in NEDCC’s Andover, MA office and provides preservation consultations, training programs, assessments, and disaster advice to cultural heritage organizations nationwide. Since joining NEDCC in 2023, she has taught hands-on emergency preparedness workshops from Louisiana to Massachusetts in addition to webinars and conference presentations on disaster preparedness. She has also provided training for organizations using dPlan|ArtsReady to manage their disaster readiness. Jesse currently serves as education chair and member-at-large on the Society of American Archivists Preservation Section. She is a certified digital archives specialist and has earned an MA in English from the University of Vermont and an MLIS with a concentration in Archives Management from Simmons University.
Alyssa Magnone, Associate Preservation Specialist
From her office in Aiken, South Carolina, Alyssa Magnone provides preservation consultations, training programs, assessments, and disaster advice to a variety of cultural heritage organizations nationwide, with a focus on the Southeast. Since joining NEDCC in 2023, she has taught a number of hands-on emergency preparedness workshops throughout the US, including an NEH-funded series for which she served as project manager. She also developed content for a new webinar “Disaster and Emergency Planning Refresher” and has updated a two-part series on writing a Disaster Plan. Alyssa has over a decade's worth of experience working with art, archaeological, history, and natural history collections. She is a 2018 graduate of the Smithsonian’s Heritage Emergency & Response Training (HEART), a 2022 graduate of the Georgia Archives Institute, and completed Library Juice Academy’s Digital Curation Certificate in 2024. Alyssa earned a BA in Anthropology and History from Mercyhurst College and an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Florida.
Ann Marie Willer, Director of Preservation Services
Ann Marie Willer has worked as a professional in the field of cultural heritage preservation since 2002. Under her oversight, NEDCC’s Preservation Services department provides preservation consulting and training to institutions and individuals across the United States; maintains the Preservation Leaflet series; and supports the dPlan|ArtsReady online emergency preparedness tool. Ann Marie has served as Principal Investigator on multiple grants with an emergency preparedness focus, most recently the “Ready—Or Not”: Cultural Heritage Disaster Preparedness project in California. She provides customized consultations and trainings (online and in-person) and presents at national and regional conferences on preparedness and response topics. She previously served as Preservation Librarian for the MIT Libraries and the University of North Texas Libraries and has earned an MS in Library Science from the University of North Texas, an MA in Musicology from the Eastman School of Music, and a certificate from Rutgers’ Preservation Management Institute.