Associate Director

Photo: Dennis Keeley.

Jeanne Marie Teutonico is the associate director of the GCI, where her responsibilities include managing the Science and Field Projects departments.

She was raised in suburban Long Island, New York, where her father worked in materials research and her mother was a nurse and later a teacher. Both parents were music lovers—her father played piano, her mother sang—and Jeanne Marie followed in their footsteps from age seven. At Princeton University, she intended to study mathematics, then toyed with music before turning to art history and literature. After her second year, she traveled to Europe, first living and working in London, then combining the grand tour with a visit to her grandmother's family in the Italian Dolomites.

Returning to Princeton a year later, she took Professor David Coffin's course on Renaissance architecture, which sparked a lifelong interest in architectural history. After graduating with a degree in art history, she considered architecture school but instead went on to earn an M.Sc. in historic preservation from Columbia University.

Her life took a decisive turn in 1982, when she won a scholarship to attend the Architectural Conservation Course at the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome and, subsequently, a research fellowship with Dr. Giorgio Torraca to work on the development of grouts for wall paintings conservation. In 1983 she joined the ICCROM staff, where she was instrumental in developing the laboratory curriculum for the architectural conservation course and responsible for research and technical advice on building materials conservation.

In 1992 Jeanne Marie moved to London after marrying John Fidler, head of Building Conservation at English Heritage. Following several years as a consultant, which included work on a UNESCO project in Zanzibar, she joined English Heritage as senior architectural conservator. There she designed and managed a program in building material science that included extensive mortars research, and she created a publication series to disseminate results. She also provided technical advice on various conservation projects, including those at Hadrian's Wall and Salisbury Cathedral.

While she did not lack challenges at English Heritage, Jeanne Marie was ready to return to an international environment and welcomed the opportunity to join the GCI in 1999. She enjoys her more strategic role in advancing the conservation work of the Institute, but is committed to maintaining personal involvement in research, fieldwork, and publications.