In 2017, Smithsonian experts partnered with the US Department of State and Iraqi heritage colleagues to launch the Nimrud Rescue Project – an ambitious effort to stabilize and recover the ancient site of Nimrud, the famed 9th century BCE capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, targeted by ISIS in 2015. Shangri La Conservator, Kent Severson, joined the team of experts working in partnership with the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, Iraq, to share knowledge about the protection and conservation of cultural heritage.