Rhea DeStefano completed a three year course, 1994-1997, at the European School for Conservation of Library Materials in Spoleto, Italy of which the third year was spent at West Dean College in West Sussex, England in the division of Rare Books and Manuscripts. Between 1998 and 2002 she worked in Berlin, Germany at the German Historical Museum and the Berlinische Galerie: Museum for Modern Art. In 2002 she moved to Washington D.C. to take on the role of paper conservator at the Folger Shakespeare Library. In 2022 she moved to the Smithsonian national Museum of Asian Art.