TXCERA Key Note Speakers

Marcel Quimby, FAIA

Marcel Quimby, FAIA, leads Quimby Preservation Studio, a small architectural firm specializing in historic preservation and preservation planning. Recent historic projects include the restoration of the Hall of State at Fair Park and preservation consult on the Reverchon Park Grandstand – a historic baseball grandstand dating from 1924. She is currently preservation consultant on the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum in San Antonio – which will be in two historic buildings. Many of her projects have been recognized with local and state preservation awards. 

Marcel has been active in the preservation community in Dallas over the past 30+ years, serving on numerous boards including Dallas Landmark Commission, Preservation Dallas – past president

• Board of Advisors for the National Trust for Historic Preservation – advisor emeritus.
• Texas State Board of Review for National Register
• AIA Dallas Chapter, past president

Marcel holds a Bachelor of Architecture  degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and was elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 1997.

Dr. Elizabeth Coe (PsyD)

Dr. Elizabeth Coe is a licensed clinical psychologist based in Waco, TX. She is Assistant Investigator and Training Director at the Warriors Research Institute of Baylor Scott & White Health. She is also an Affiliate Clinical Professor in the Baylor University Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

As a therapist and researcher, Dr. Coe works primarily with military veterans, first responders, and families who have experienced trauma. As a trainer and supervisor, Dr. Coe enjoys teaching mindfulness and resilience skills, encouraging creativity and critical thinking, and helping others amplify their personal strengths and social supports to overcome challenges. In her spare time, she enjoys training with her running group, practicing her (very rusty) Spanish, attending live music performances, and cheering on the Baylor Bears!

Cassandra Wallace

Cassandra Wallace is a Sr. Emergency Management Specialist with the City of Dallas Office of Emergency Management (OEM).  Cassandra has been with the City of Dallas for nearly 20 years, 18 of which have been in the Office of Emergency Management.  Cassandra has held leadership positions in the Emergency Operations Center during dozens of emergency activations including shelter operations, severe weather activations, community emergency activations and special events. 

Cassandra’s roles and responsibilities include managing the City of Dallas Community Disaster Preparedness Program.  Cassandra is the Program Manager for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program which is focused on training residents to care for themselves, their families and their neighbors during disasters – to date, nearly 5000 City of Dallas residents have been trained and continue to volunteer for the City of Dallas OEM. 

Cassandra serves on the Board of Directors for two non-profit organizations and holds leadership positions on several emergency management related committees in the North Central Texas region.  Cassandra continually strives to take the city/regional disaster preparedness/public education and community partnership programs to new levels.

Dale C. Sellers

Dale C. Sellers founded Phoenix I Restoration and Construction, LLC. in 1999 based on his passion for historic restoration and the idea that historic restoration and preservation plays an important role in our cultural heritage and our entire built environment. Dale grew that idea into a team of over 90 full time project managers, superintendents, craftspeople, and field personnel, with expertise in all facets of general construction but specializing in the trades associated with historic restoration.

Phoenix I Restoration and Construction, Ltd. has been in business over 50 years as a construction manager, general contractor, and trades contractor. We specialize in historic building restoration, have participated in dozens of Texas Historic Courthouse restorations, and hundreds of other historically significant projects. Phoenix I is a recognized leader in the industry with both our company and our projects being honored with numerous awards. We provide our expert services to the State Attorney General’s Office, the Texas Historical Commission, engineers, cities, and many well respected architects across the Lone Star State.

Ron Siebler

Ron Siebler is an award-winning historic preservationist, conservator, and residential remodeler based in Dallas, Texas. Siebler works with museums, local governments, and individual homeowners to remodel homes, restore historic buildings, structures, large artifacts, and cultural objects using materials and historically informed techniques that meet the highest preservation standards.

Siebler regularly demonstrates and interprets the ancient crafts of carpentry and blacksmithing at numerous museums. He also teaches a variety of classes in preservation repair techniques, including presentations for the Texas Association of Museums, and the Department of Museum Studies at Baylor University. Ron has also presented many wood window repair workshops throughout the North Texas area.

Ron received the Dallas AIA Artisan Award in 2022. The Texas Society of Architects presented Ron with their prestigious Artisan Award in 2020. And Preservation Dallas awarded him their Craftsman of the Year Award in 2016. He has also received numerous Achievement and Special Recognition Awards from Preservation Dallas, Preservation Texas, and Dallas ASID.

Ron serves on the board of directors for Preservation Texas and Preservation Dallas. He also serves as a founding board member of two organizations: the North Texas Association for Art Conservation and Meetinghouse Revival, a Corsicana-based non-profit dedicated to preserving Black history by restoring Black churches.

Cristiana Acerbi Ginatta

Cristiana Acerbi Ginatta is a conservator of paintings in Dallas.  She has received her Master in Conservazione e Restauro dei Beni Storico Artistici from Palazzo Spinelli in Florence, Italy and is a Professional Associate with AIC (American Institute for Conservation).  As a hired specialist and as a volunteer with TX-CERA she has assisted in the recovery efforts and professionally treated numerous collections affected by natural disasters and accidents.  She holds FEMA and Community Emergency Response certifications.  She has lectured on Management of Museums and Cultural Institutions at Universita’ Luigi Bocconi in Milan, Italy.  

Ian W. Muse

Ian Muse has been the Preservation Librarian at Texas A&M University Libraries since 2018. Before that, he was Visual Resources Curator at the Texas A&M University College of Architecture and Assistant Registrar at the North Carolina Museum of History. Ian graduated from Texas A&M University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Science, from North Carolina State University in 2002 with a Master of Arts in Public History, and from Texas Woman’s University in 2014 with a Master of Library Science degree. Ian currently leads the Collections Disaster and Recovery Team (CDART) at Texas A&M University Libraries and serves as vice president of the Texas Collections Emergency Resource Alliance.

Laura Pate

Laura Pate has 29 years of experience as a decorative arts conservator. For 22 of those years, she has owned and operated Brown Mountain Art Restoration, a company specializing in the conservation and restoration of ceramics and porcelains, paintings, gilded frames and objects, as well as public art. Ms. Pate has been a Professional Member of the American Institute for Conservation since 2013. She has a Specialty Certificate in the Care of Decorative Objects from The International Preservation Studies Center. In 2006 she participated in an Angel Project for the Museum of Biblical Art assisting in the treatment of several plaster sculptures on loan to the institution that were damaged in a fire that destroyed much of the museum. This, as well as the dramatic increase in extreme weather events, sparked an interest and involvement in disaster preparedness and emergency response that continues today. She is a board member of Texas Cultural Emergency Response Alliance, a Texas Heritage Responder, as well as a National Heritage Responder.

Lynn Rushton Reed

As Dallas Public Art Collection and Conservation Manager, she oversees a collection valued at more than $100 million. It spans from newly commissioned works to heritage sites such as the 1936 Centennial collection at Fair Park and Dallas Love Field, and it stretches across every district and neighborhood in the city.

As an advocate for the city’s collection and placemaking program, she works with community groups to expand public access to art. She works with artists, neighborhood and residents in urban beautification. Rushton also oversees new public art projects that are not related to Percent for the Arts.

Her work includes the supervision of restoration of artwork and cultural objects in the 1936 Hall of State, the 1934 Pegasus on the Magnolia Building and the Alexander Liberman Venture. As Executive Producer of the documentary Rising, The Story 1936 Texas Centennial Hall of Negro Life, Rushton Reed used a National Parks Service Grant Civil Rights, to explore this hidden history and influence into civil rights.

Rushton has worked with museums and cultural institutions her entire career, from early work at the Smithsonian’s National Museum for American Art in DC and the Kennedy Center to her work as City Curator in Grapevine, Texas.

She holds a BFA in Fine Art – Painting and BA in Communication from Vanderbilt University, an MA in Art Education from Texas Tech University, and completed additional graduate work in Art History (American Arts and Crafts) at Tulane University. She is a member of American Institute of Conservation of Historic and Artistic Work and the Honor society of Phi Kappa Phi and is an advisory board member for TXCERA.

Steve Pine

Steve Pine has recently retired as Senior Decorative Arts Conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston after 32 years to start a private practice with a focus on furniture and objects conservation.  There he cared for a variety of 3-dimensional objects that ranged from 17^th through 21^st century furniture and decorative arts including gilding, upholstery, modern and contemporary design in wood, plastics and metal. Trained as a sculptor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia he went on to earn an MS in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware / Winterthur Museum program. Mr. Pine was hired by the MFAH in 1990 as its first staff conservator to help design a conservation facility for the museum, lead the conservation efforts to organize the restoration of the Bayou Bend Collection’s facilities and help re-interpret the American Decorative Arts Collection.

His responsibilities expanded to include being Radiation Safety Officer and Integrated Pest Management Lead for the museum. He lectured nationally on new strategies for pest control and anoxic fumigation of art.  His work with contemporary collections of industrial design and furniture led to his researching anoxic storage strategies for unstable thermoplastics and new methods for the consolidation of degraded plastics. 

He is a Board Member of the Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC) and a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). He has held the offices of Chair of the Wooden Artifacts group and for the Emergency Committee for the AIC. He is an active member of the National Heritage Response team of the FAIC and President of the Texas Collections Emergency Resource Alliance (TXCERA). Steve has deployed as part of these groups following hurricanes Katrina, Ike, Sandy and Harvey and others to assist cultural heritage organizations damaged by those storms. In 2018 he was awarded the AIC’s President’s Award for his leadership assisting cultural heritage institutions damaged in the Houston area following Hurricane Harvey. He lectures and leads workshops on disaster preparedness and response for cultural heritage resources and building Alliance for Response networks.

Steve Pine has recently retired as Senior Decorative Arts Conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston after 32 years to start a private practice with a focus on furniture and objects conservation.  There he cared for a variety of 3-dimensional objects that ranged from 17^th through 21^st century furniture and decorative arts including gilding, upholstery, modern and contemporary design in wood, plastics and metal. Trained as a sculptor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia he went on to earn an MS in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware / Winterthur Museum program. Mr. Pine was hired by the MFAH in 1990 as its first staff conservator to help design a conservation facility for the museum, lead the conservation efforts to organize the restoration of the Bayou Bend Collection’s facilities and help re-interpret the American Decorative Arts Collection.

Lyzanne Gann

Conservator of Works of Art on Paper and Photographic Materials | Gann Preservation Services, LLC gps@airpost.net

Lyzanne Gann is an independent conservator of works of art on paper and photographic materials with 25 years experience. She holds a B.A. in Art History from Southern Methodist University, a Master of Arts with a Certificate of Advanced Study in the Conservation of Art and Historical Artifacts from the State University of New York College at Buffalo (SUNY), and an M.A.E. in the Conservation-Restauration des Biens Culturels from the Université Paris I (Sorbonne).

She consults with private and institutional clients both locally and internationally to preserve fine art and historical artifacts. The focus of her practice ranges from preventive conservation methods addressing environment, storage, and exhibition practices to treatment of artifacts.

Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Gann had the privilege of working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Rodin Museum, The Williamstown Art Conservation Center, the Instituut Collectie Nederland as an instructor, as a grant funded researcher at the Centre de Recherches sur la Conservation des Documents Graphiques (CNRS), and was responsible for establishing and running the conservation lab at the Nationaal Fotorestauratie Atelier in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Her interests include research into silver mirroring treatment methods, coatings on photographs, pastel techniques, early color photographic processes, long term aging of chemical treatments, and plumerias. She has worked making images in historic processes such as the Daguerreotype (mercury and Becquerel development), Salted Paper (prints and waxed paper negatives), Albumen, Platinum/Palladium, Cyanotytpe, Wet Collodion, Autochrome, Dye-Transfer, Gelatin printing-out and developing-out processes, and most recently the Orotone and its variants with colleagues.