Staff

Stéphanie Auffret received both a PhD and an MA in Art History from the University of Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV) and an MA in Art Conservation from the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. Her PhD focused on The Authenticity of French Furniture: Interpretation, Evaluation, and Preservation. Before joining the Conservation Institute in 2016, she worked as a furniture conservator at the Winterthur Museum (as conservator and assistant professor in the Winterthur-University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation), Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Historic New England, as well as at private conservation studios in France.

Current projects: Cleaning of Wooden Gilded Surfaces, Recent Advances in Characterizing Asian Lacquer

Stephanie Becker works with archival collections across the cultural heritage sector, specializing in the access and preservation of digital resources. Before joining the Conservation Institute, she consulted on numerous archival projects and held positions at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the George Eastman Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others. She holds an MA in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from the University of Rochester and a BFA in Photography from the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

Theofanis Karafotias holds degrees in the Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art from the Athens Technological Institute and in Marketing and Communication from the Athens University of Business and Economics. He holds master's degrees in Administration of Cultural Organizations from the Hellenic Open University, Heritage Management from the University of Kent, and in Museum and Gallery Practice from UCL Qatar. He has worked for fourteen years as a conservator for the Greek Ministry of Culture and nine years as a collections manager at the National Museum of Qatar and Louvre Abu Dhabi. Karafotias is part of the Managing Collection Environments Initiative with a focus on sustainable practices and collection management strategies in museums.

Current project: Managing Collection Environments Initiative

Naomi Mayo is the senior department coordinator for the Collections department. She has been at the Conservation Institute since November 2022 assisting Stavroula Golfomitsou, head of Collections, as well as supporting various projects within the department.

Ellen Moody is a contemporary art conservator who designs research and educational initiatives to support conservation professionals. Before joining the Conservation Institute in 2020, she was an objects conservator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and has held positions at the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Kröller-Müller Museum, and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. Moody holds an MS from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation and a BA in Art History from Pomona College. A proud Angeleno, she is the founding co-chair of the Conservation Association of Los Angeles and a founding board member of Art Recovery Los Angeles. From 2023 to 2025, she served as assistant program chair/program chair for the Contemporary Art Network of the American Institute for Conservation. At the Conservation Institute, she leads projects as part of the Modern and Contemporary Art Research Initiative.

Ana Pastor Pérez holds a PhD and an MA in Cultural Heritage Management and Museology from the University of Barcelona, a degree in Archaeological Conservation from the ESCRBC of Madrid, and a degree in History from the Autonomous University of Madrid. In 2011, she participated in ICCROM's course "Reducing Risks to Cultural Heritage," developing a holistic view of research and practice. Her PhD focused on social archaeological conservation, integrating ethnographic techniques and sustainable conservation strategies. Before joining the Conservation Institute, she worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, leading different community-based projects. At the Conservation Institute, she works with archaeological collections to fill knowledge gaps and highlight conservation work from an inclusive and contextualized perspective.

Cecilia Winter holds degrees in History and Museum Studies from the University of São Paulo in Brazil and a master’s in Painting Conservation from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She has worked as a registrar and a conservator in Brazil and France since 2004, focusing on preventive conservation and collection care, documentation, exhibitions, and loans. Before joining the Conservation Institute in 2022, she was the head of the Collection and Conservation department at the Museum of Art of São Paulo and a preventive conservation teacher in the Collection Management MBA at Associação Brasileira de Gestão de Cultural and University Cândido e Mendes.

Current project: Managing Collection Environments Initiative