Stephanie Spence is the Associate Objects Conservator at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. In 2017, Stephanie received her M.A., C.A.S. in Art Conservation from SUNY-Buffalo State College, with a specialization in objects and focus on Asian lacquers. She received her B.A. in Art Conservation and a minor in Art History from the University of Delaware. Stephanie is the primary conservator for the Starr Portrait Miniature Collection, and Asian lacquer collections. From 2017-18, she was the Conservation Fellow at the Toledo Museum of Art, where she carried out a large-scale treatment to blast freeze tens of thousands of dried flowers in preparation for a special exhibition by British artist, Rebecca Louise Law. Stephanie also completed graduate internships at the Nelson-Atkins, Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City, and the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology in Japan. While at OIST, she focused on the conservation of Okinawan lacquers and a special project to test the efficacy of femtosecond lasers as a means to take cross-section samples from paintings.