As the Project Specialist at ICCROM, Ms. Tandon is leading its international capacity development programme on disaster risk management and its flagship training on First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis. Additionally, she is coordinating and developing the activities of the SOIMA (Sound and Image Collections Conservation) program aimed at safeguarding endangered audiovisual heritage. Aparna has led post disaster assessments and training initiatives for recovery of cultural heritage in Haiti (2010), Philippines (2013) and Nepal (2015). Through ICCROM-ATHAR regional center at Sharjah, she has led workshops for protecting cultural heritage in conflict afflicted countries that include Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan and South Sudan.

Aparna has over fifteen years of post- qualification experience in the field of conservation of cultural heritage. She holds an MA in Art Conservation and has received advanced level training in Paper Conservation from the Straus Center for Conservation, Harvard University Art Museums, USA. In 2001-2002 she was the Fulbright Arts Fellow at Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and then a Conservation Guest Scholar at the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, USA. From 1998 to 2004, she was the Curator-Conservator at the Amar Mahal Museum and Library in Jammu & Kashmir, India. She has specialized in designing preventive conservation and disaster risk management strategies for cultural heritage and teaching the subject, while also being very active in promoting awareness and public participation in preservation activities.