AUSTIN, TX.- The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, announces the appointment of Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa as associate director and head of the Preservation and Conservation Division. Cunningham-Kruppa, who begins her service on Oct. 1, will oversee the preservation, care and protection of the Ransom Center’s collections and will provide strategic direction for future preservation and conservation initiatives.

Since its inception in 1980 the Ransom Center’s conservation department has been charged with the care of the Center’s collections including maintaining an optimum preservation environment, overseeing preservation housings, conservation treatment and educating and training more than 80 future conservators.

“I am honored and humbled to be entrusted with the care of the Ransom Center’s spectacular collections,” said Cunningham-Kruppa. “It is a dream to have the opportunity to work with the Center’s conservators and curators to envision an exciting agenda of projects and initiatives for the coming months and years.”

Cunningham-Kruppa holds multiple degrees from The University of Texas at Austin including a bachelor of science, a master of library and information science and a Ph.D. in American studies with a dissertation focusing on library and archives conservation education. She holds an endorsement of specialization in administration of preservation programs in libraries and archives from Columbia University.

Since 2010, Cunningham-Kruppa has been working in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation as a project coordinator for an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded project focusing on library and archives conservation education. Prior to that position, Cunningham-Kruppa served as director of the Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record at UT Austin. Cunningham-Kruppa also served as preservation officer with UT Austin’s General Libraries.

In addition to teaching at The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Delaware and Simmons College, Cunningham-Kruppa has a strong record of publication on preservation and conservation topics and a record of professional service including holding leadership positions within the national preservation and conservation community.

She also has a record of being the first to hold many professional and leadership positions of her career, from the first preservation officer at UT Austin General Libraries and later their first digital programs librarian, to developing the specialized Kilgarlin Center.

“Conservation efforts are an integral part of the Center’s mission to preserve and make accessible the creations of our cultural heritage,” said Ransom Center Director Stephen Enniss. “I’m confident Ellen will build upon and extend the already strong preservation and conservation program we enjoy here at the Ransom Center.”