UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Master’s Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage


Taylor Brehm

Class of 2025

Taylor Brehm received her BA in archaeology with a minor in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse in 2014. After graduating, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to work in the archaeology department of the Science Museum of Minnesota, where she assisted in local excavations, rehoused archaeological collections, and participated in public outreach.

Cheyenne Caraway

Class of 2025

Cheyenne Caraway is Mississippi Choctaw and Chickasaw from southern Oklahoma. In 2015, she earned a double BA in anthropology and studio art from Fort Lewis College, where she was first introduced to collection care as an undergraduate intern at the Center of Southwest Studies.

Rachel Moore

Class of 2025

Rachel Moore is a member of the Hopi Tribe in Arizona but calls Albuquerque, New Mexico, her home. She received a BA in anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology and minor in visual arts from Brigham Young University in Provo in 2014.

Kathryn Peneyra

Class of 2025

Kathryn Peneyra grew up in Chapel Hill, NC. She earned a BA in chemistry from Carleton College in 2017. In her undergraduate thesis she examined the use of X-ray fluorescence in imaging underpaintings. In the years since graduating, she has been expanding her conservation knowledge through conservation internships alongside her full-time job as ecological landscaper.

Makayla Rawlins

Class of 2025

Makayla Rawlins is from southern California and passionate about preserving cultural heritage and ensuring its representation in museums. She earned her BA in art history and biological anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a minor in American Indian and Indigenous studies.


PhD program in the Conservation of Material Culture

Born and raised in Indonesia, Saiful Bakhri is a graduate student in the UCLA Conservation of Material Culture Ph.D. Program. Through this program, he seeks to address the cultural importance and physical production of traditional materials for conservation treatment to better meet the environmental, social, and cultural needs of non-Western communities and how they can be incorporated into Western practice. His current research focuses on investigating soapnut as a biodegradable surfactant in cleaning Batik, an Indonesian textile that is well-known due to its distinct wax-resist dyeing technique.

Christian de Brer has an MA from the UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials, where he concentrated his efforts on the long-term preservation of organic materials in regional museum collections. Since 2011 he has overseen all conservation-related activities at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

Chongwen is from Liaoning, China. He received his BSc in Chemistry with a second degree in Conservation of Cultural Relics at Peking University in 2021. His next destination was University College London where he obtained an MSc in Archaeological Science with distinction. At UCLA, his current research is dedicated to developing bio-inspired antifouling strategies for underwater cultural heritage.

Moupi Mukhopadhyay is from India. Upon obtaining a BE in Mechanical Engineering from M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, she proceeded to earn an MS in Materials Science and Engineering at UCLA. During this time, she joined the Archaeomaterials group and developed an interest in the analytical methods used in the conservation of archaeological and ethnographic materials.

Elizabeth Salmon was born and raised in San Diego, California. She earned her BA in 2014 from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, where she studied anthropology and Asian studies. She was subsequently named a Critical Language Scholar by the U. S. Department of State, which allowed her to study Hindi in Jaipur, Rajasthan (India).