Lisa Ackerman

Lisa Ackerman is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute's Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment within the School of Architecture. She holds roles as Executive Director of the Columbus Citizens Foundation and Chair of the Historic House Trust of NYC and New York Preservation Archive Project. A board member of the Alabama African American Civil Rights Sites Consortium and American Society of Overseas Research, she bridges academic and professional preservation sectors.

Education includes a B.A. in Art History and Italian from Middlebury College, an M.B.A. in Marketing from NYU Stern School of Business, and an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Pratt Institute. Her interdisciplinary background combines business strategy with cultural heritage expertise.

Research focuses on international heritage conservation, UNESCO frameworks, and transnational preservation projects. She has directed 100+ projects across 60 countries during her tenure at World Monuments Fund. Publications emphasize heritage management innovation, conflict zone preservation, and digital archiving.

Teaching at Pratt enables her to integrate fieldwork experiences with theoretical frameworks. Her work highlights ethical challenges in repatriation, urban landscape restoration, and adaptive reuse strategies. She advocates for inclusive preservation policies that address both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.