NEW YORK, NY.- World Monuments Fund today announced the signing of academic collaborations for the new Suzanne Deal Booth Institute for Heritage Preservation with Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Tulane University, Carleton University (Canada), and the University of Duhok (Kurdistan Region of Iraq). These collaborations will help facilitate the Institute’s core mission of strengthening the field of heritage preservation by connecting scholarly expertise with real-world practice, expanding training pathways, and preparing the next generation of preservation leaders.

In collaboration with the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, Tulane School of Architecture and Built Environment, Carleton University (Canada), and the University of Duhok (Kurdistan Region of Iraq), the Suzanne Deal Booth Institute will integrate education with active preservation projects across WMF’s global portfolio. Field-based learning, research engagement, and professional exchange at WMF project sites will enable students and faculty to contribute directly to conservation planning, development, and on-the-ground preservation work.

The Institute’s new academic collaboration with Columbia GSAPP builds on WMF’s decades-long relationship with the institution. Since 2015, WMF and Columbia GSAPP have established eight field schools for heritage preservation training and research, giving over 100 Columbia students and 160 local students and researchers hands-on practice at WMF project sites, including the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. Full reports from these previous field schools are available here on the Columbia GSAPP website. Focusing on cross-cultural education between Columbia students and local students at these sites was central to establishing this new collaboration with the Institute.

Established in 2025 with a generous $10 million endowment gift from leading advocate for cultural heritage preservation, collector, philanthropist, and vintner Suzanne Deal

Booth, the Institute brings together the organization’s training programs, academic collaborations, research agenda, and professional networks under a single framework. Funding from the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, philanthropist Denise Littlefield Sobel, and philanthropist Virginia James further expanded the Institute’s scope, advancing new initiatives that promote workforce development, greenspace stewardship, and digital preservation.

The Institute is organized around four interconnected pillars designed to address today’s most pressing professional needs in cultural heritage preservation.

• Academic Partnerships: Through collaborations with universities, WMF connects graduate-level study with real-world preservation practice, enabling students to participate directly in fieldwork, research, and project development across the organization’s global portfolio. These partnerships also introduce new scholarly perspectives into WMF’s work, deepen interdisciplinary exchange, strengthen the training pipeline for emerging heritage professionals, and expand opportunities for international engagement and collaborative inquiry.

• Heritage Trades Training: Hands-on training programs at WMF project sites help strengthen preservation trades, expand local pathways to employment, and reinforce the practical skills needed to care for historic places worldwide. Recent programs include instruction in stone masonry and metalwork conservation through a Bridge to Crafts Careers expansion to New Orleans, as well as ongoing technical training at Angkor Archaeological Park, Cambodia, where participants hone their skills in archaeological site maintenance and traditional construction techniques.

• Professional Networks: Strengthening global knowledge exchange networks through initiatives such as Cultivating Resilience, which continues work across seven historic gardens and green spaces; Coastal Connections, which has established new hubs on the Swahili Coast and in the Caribbean; and the WMF Watch Network, which has recently convened sessions on Ukraine heritage response, digital documentation, and virtual visitation strategies, with additional programming planned in the new year.

• Research and Partnerships: WMF advances evidence-based preservation through research, evaluation, and the publication of new methodologies and findings. Recent efforts include detailed reporting on the Crisis Response Program with focused analysis of work in Ukraine, improved approaches to measuring WMF’s job creation across projects, and digital impact evaluation using social media insights to better understand visitor engagement and learning at heritage sites such as Ciudad Perdida.

WMF will mark the launch of the Institute’s academic partnerships with its first public event, The Future of Preservation: Expanding Knowledge, Deepening Impact, to be held on March 5, 2026, at the University of Pennsylvania. Free and open to all, the conversation will bring together Dr. Jonathan S. Bell, Senior Vice President for Global Preservation Strategy at World Monuments Fund and Founding Director of the Suzanne Deal Booth Institute for Heritage Preservation, and Randall Mason, Professor and Chair of the Department of Historic Preservation at Penn, to examine how the preservation field is evolving in response to social, environmental, and technological change, and how collaboration can expand preservation’s impact.