Meet the Committee Members

James is the group chair for ICON EPN. He is currently completing his PhD at the Royal Danish Academy: institute for Conservation, researching the treatment of waterlogged organic archaeological material. He has previously interned at the Western Australian Shipwreck Museum, primarily working with maritime archaeological objects and was a Western Heritage Conservation and Heritage Science Intern at the Mary Rose. His work at the Mary Rose included helping to conserve and analyse the Mary Rose using various analysis methods and data sets.

James studied at Durham University, completing his masters in the Conservation of Archaeological and Museum Objects in the summer of 2022. His placement year was spent at Bevaringscenter Fyn, Denmark, where he worked on honing his abilities as an object conservator.

His undergraduate degree was in Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh where his experiences on excavation first got him interested in the field of conservation.

While James has worked with and researched waterlogged wood heavily, on which he has presented and published papers, he enjoys treating a wide variety of archaeological materials and learning about the wide variety of different fields of conservation.

Carola is our Communications Officer and facilitates contact within ICON. She completed a Post Graduate diploma and MA in Conservation of Metals at West Dean College, in 2022. Her undergraduate degree was in 3-Dimentional Glass Craftsmanship and Design. She is currently a Project Conservator based at the Historic England conservation labs in Portsmouth, working collaboratively with MSDS Marine, conserving objects recovered from the Rooswijk shipwreck. Carola’s focus is archaeological objects recovered from both terrestrial and marine sites.

Carola entered conservation from a career in the creative arts, having trained as a theatrical prop-maker at Glyndebourne Opera House, then working as a freelance prop maker for events, focusing on metalwork, scenic prop making and sculpture.

She can be found on Instagram, talking about her projects: @CarolaDelMese.

Camella is our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Camella is currently training at English Heritage as a Preventive Conservator. She completed an MA in Principles of Conservation from the UCL Institute of Archaeology, where she was elected student officer for UCL’s disabled students as well as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion representative. Her research focused on exploring decolonial routes to contemporary conservation. Camella also worked as a Collections Manager on a large-scale store move of UCL’s Ethnographic Collections.  

Prior to her MA, Camella undertook a 1-year traineeship at The British Museum as a Community Partnerships officer. She was involved in delivering workshops, outreach and public events. Additionally, she assisted in the curation of ‘Desire, love, identity: LGBTQ histories’ exhibition and gallery trail. She received training from curators and conservators to manage the preventive conservation and audit of the department's handling collection, which includes over 600 objects. Working collaboratively with other teams, she provided objects from the collection to be featured in exhibitions.  

After her traineeship Camella continued at The British Museum working with the Africa, Oceania and Americas Department on collection care and access. She also started a project with the aim of digitising and documenting Caribbean collections. Her work involved research to update the biographies of these objects and preventive conservation. Camella has worked in various collection care positions at the Science Museum Group, Natural History Museum and at the Royal Geographic Society with Wiley Digital Archives, where she independently managed the recant and documentation of collections and archives. Camella is a strong advocate for equality, she believes cultural heritage should be accessible to all.  

Joanne is the Treasurer for Icon EPN. Since graduating in 2021 from the MA Conservation of Fine Art: Works on Paper course at Northumbria University, she is currently working as a Conservator (Collections Care) at Durham University, primarily undertaking a collection storage audit alongside other collection care responsibilities. 

Prior to this current role, Joanne has worked at The University of Edinburgh as a Conservation Intern, and volunteered for several years across National Trust sites, Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children's Books, The Bowes Museum, and The Whitworth. 

Across her experiences, Joanne has been inspired working with other conservators, and as part of the ICON EPN team she wants to help encourage this supportive and active community. 

Davina is the EPN Secretary and is currently the Conservation and Collections Care Officer at Raby Castle, County Durham. Davina graduated from Durham University with a MA Conservation of Archaeological and Museum Objects in 2023. Prior to entering the field of conservation, Davina served in multiple roles across senior leadership teams in secondary schools whilst teaching Classics and English to students from Year 7 to A-Level. Davina is particularly interested in the balance between preservation and use of collections as well as the conservation of cellulosic, protein-based and modern synthetic polymers.

Kate is a student member on the social media committee of the Emerging Professional Network. She is currently in her final year of her undergraduate degree at the University of Lincoln studying Conservation of Cultural heritage. She completed her second year work placement at the Lincoln archives working with archival and archaeology materials. Her main interests lie in historical costume, social history and archaeology.

Adela is one of the Events Coordinators in the ICON EPN team. Through her freelance practice, Adela Hawley - Collections Management, she offers services in conservation, curation, collections management, and heritage consultancy, with a particular emphasis on digital innovation and improving accessibility in the cultural sector.

Adela has contributed to a wide range of heritage projects both in the UK and internationally, working with institutions such as Qatar Museums, Manchester Museum, the Museum of Science and Technology in Serbia, The Box in Plymouth, and ProMare. Her work has included preventive conservation, collections management, exhibition design, and the digitisation of maritime artefacts using 3D scanning technology to enhance public access.

She holds an MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies and a BA (Hons) in Conservation of Cultural Heritage. You can connect with Adela online through her Linktree: linktr.ee/adelahawley.

Adela is interested in blending traditional conservation methods with modern technologies, striving to enhance the sustainability and accessibility of cultural heritage for future generations.

Sky-Lyn is a part of the EPN Social Media Team. She graduated from Durham University’s Conservation for Archaeological and Museum Objects program in 2024. As part of her studies, she completed a 10-month placement at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, UK, where she gained hands-on experience in both remedial and preventive conservation practices.

Following her placement, she worked as a Conservator at the Science and Industry Museum, focusing on preventive conservation and a major store decant. She currently serves as the GoGreen Research Fellow at The Courtauld Institute of Art, contributing to the EU-funded project dedicated to sustainable conservation practices.

With a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, she has a strong interest in conservation science research, particularly in developing innovative methods for the preservation and analysis of cultural heritage.