Alison oversees all preservation-related activities, which include collection need and risk assessment, preventive conservation projects (such as environmental and pest management), budgeting and procurement, and long-term preservation strategies and initiatives.

Since coming to the Archives in 2015, Alison has led a pan-institutional audiovisual survey and preservation readiness assessment for eleven participating Smithsonian units. She now directs the Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI), a pan-Smithsonian program to catalog, digitize, and share the Institution’s audiovisual collections. Alison also serves as a member of the Smithsonian's Preparedness and Response in Collections Emergencies (PRICE) team, focusing on logistic-related needs across SI.