
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Karissa is the Preventive Conservation Librarian in the Steven Miller Conservation Laboratory. In that role, she serves as a key resource for Library staff seeking guidance on collections care topics to assess and address the physical needs of actively circulating, distinctive, and global collections. She is a member of the Preservation Department's disaster response team and contributes to preventive care topics like environmental monitoring across collection spaces.
Karissa joined Penn Libraries from Northwestern University Libraries, where she held a post-graduate conservation residency and, among other projects and workflows, carried out and published research on the interaction of rigid polysaccharide gels with paper sizings. Karissa has conservation experience from a variety of institutions, with advanced internships during her graduate studies at the Library of Congress, University of Michigan, Indiana Historical Society, and The American Philosophical Society.
She has a BFA in Fine Arts from Adelphi University Honors College, a BA in Art Conservation and Art History from the University of Delaware, and a MS in Art Conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC), where she majored in Library and Archives Conservation and minored in Paper Conservation.