Mira Nakashima is the daugh­ter of Japan­ese-Amer­i­can wood­worker and archi­tect George Nakashima, and since 2004 has been Pres­i­dent and Creative Direc­tor of George Nakashima Wood­work­ers and President of the Nakashima Foundation for Peace. Mira was born in 1942 in Seattle, Wash­ing­ton, grad­u­ated cum laude from Harvard Univer­sity with an under­grad­u­ate degree in Archi­tec­tural Sciences and General Studies, and earned her master’s degree in Archi­tec­ture from Waseda University in Tokyo.

Born in Brooklyn, John DeFazio lives and practices architecture and planning in New York City. He is a New York Institute of Technology graduate where he teaches architectural Thesis studio. He also teaches thesis in the study-abroad program (Japan, Netherlands, Barcelona) and architectural theories at Westphal College, Architecture, Interiors, and Urban Design, Drexel University, Philadelphia. He is a writer on art, architecture, and planning and has contributed to Art in America and Residential Design Magazine.

William Whitaker is the curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. Trained as an architect and architectural historian at the University of New Mexico and the University of Pennsylvania, Whitaker primarily works on documenting and interpreting Penn’s design collections. He has lectured on a wide range of subjects related to twentieth century architecture, landscape, and community design.

John Hinchman is a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Architectural Conservation  at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where he serves as Operations Manager. He focuses on the integration of digital technology in the conservation field, and teaches courses which focus on developing an understanding of the use of diverse software packages as a single integrated tool in Historic Preservation, as well as Documentation II which provides an introduction to the survey and recording of historic buildings and sites. 

As an educator and conservation practitioner, Frank Matero has shaped architectural conservation discourse and practice in the US and abroad. He is Professor of Architecture and directs the Department of Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. He is Director and founder of the Center for Architectural Conservation, a member of the Graduate Group in the Department of Art History, and Research Associate of the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. 

Michael Henry was Principal Engineer/Architect and founding partner of Watson & Henry Associates and is Principal at Michael C. Henry, LLC. He has consulted to institutions, cultural heritage stewards and architects/engineers on conservation of heritage buildings and collections. Michael is Adjunct Professor of Architecture in the Department of Historic Preservation at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. He is a guest lecturer at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Graduate Program in Art Conservation.

Wendy Jessup is a conservator in private practice. A Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and Professional Member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), Wendy is experienced in identifying vulnerabilities and risks to collections and in setting objectives for risk reduction, collections accountability, and preventive conservation. She began her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and worked for Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) and the Smithsonian Institution. She established Wendy Jessup and Associates, Inc. in 1989 to provide preventive conservation services. 

Mojtaba Saffarian is an architectural staff member at John G. Waite Associates, Architects. He holds a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. He contributed to several preservation projects across the U.S. through Penn’s Center for Architectural Conservation. The Nakashima Family House served as the case study for his master’s thesis on Building Information Modeling (BIM) applications in preservation. Post-graduation, he continued working at Penn as a research associate, becoming fully engaged in the house’s digital documentation and expanding its use for conservation and interpretation.