Cynthia Trowman- Director of Operations

Cynthia is a technically skilled professional with 13 years of experience managing complex grants and workforce development programs at NCCC and has a proven track record leading all phases of major projects in academic and nonprofit settings. During the time employed at Niagara County Community College, She worked as a Grant Writer, Interim Director and Assistant Director of Workforce Community Development.

As an educator, She has worked with at-risk, special needs students and dislocated workers in multiple grant programs to assist individuals with education, training, and employment at Buffalo Urban League for nine years. Her teaching experience is vast as an instructor, at Niagara County Community College, Trott ACCESS Center, teaching EDU 101, and at Horizon Village, Lockport Road, Niagara Falls teaching Pre-Collegiate Reading, Math and computers, and  professionally as a Notary Public instructor, at Niagara University from 1999 – 2002; and presently at Lewiston Porter’s Continuing Education program in 2023.

She is a former member and Vice President and Treasurer of American Businesswomen’s Association and Miss Niagara County Committee person and was presented with the ‘Good Neighbor Award’ for volunteerism. 

She has obtained an ASS Liberal Arts degree from NCCC, a Bachelor of Science in Business & Distributive Education and Master of Science in School Administration and Supervision from Niagara University.

Cindy has always enjoyed being a Master Docent for Graycliff Conservancy in Derby, NY and as a volunteer at Forest Lawn since 2014.

As a lifelong learner Cynthia has also received training as a Master Gardner, Master Food Processor and Beginning Farmer from Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Shane Sayer - Grounds Supervisor

Shane Sayer.jpg

Shane is a long time member of our Oakwood Cemetery family.  He is a licensed crematory operator (Certificate of Cremation) who also maintains the grounds and cares for Oakwood’s physical plant, providing excellent and respectful care of the dead and the places they rest. He is a valued part of the reason Oakwood Cemetery continues to be the beautiful place it is, offering the excellent service that it does.

Christine Bacon - Heritage Curator

Christine Bacon

Christine Bacon, a graduate student at Niagara University, has been awarded an honorable mention designation by the nation’s top professional museum association, the American Alliance of Museums.

Bacon’s paper, A Thousand Invisible Cords, was part of the AAM’s Education Future Fiction Challenge and included in an application for the Ford W. Bell Fellowship with the AAM’s Center for the Future of Museums.

A resident of Williamsville, Bacon is studying toward a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies at NU. She is focusing on the disciplines of history, museum studies, education, writing, tourism, economic development, architecture, historic preservation, and urban planning, among others.

Bacon was “shocked and excited” to be selected for the AAM award, “because of the prestige of the sponsoring organization and the national scope of the fiction challenge.”

A Thousand Invisible Cords is a fictional short story set in Western New York in the year 2040. It envisions a lifelong public education program grounded in constructivist and experiential learning theories, rather than the behaviorist models that dominated K-12 public schools in previous decades.

“The interdisciplinary nature of the contest appealed to me,” Bacon said. “I was able to combine elements I learned in my history and museum studies classes at Niagara University with a love of creative writing to envision a future where museums play an integral role in K-12 education.”

Bacon credited her Niagara University professors, Dr. Mustafa Gokcek, director of the MAIS program and associate professor of history, Dr. Shannon Risk, associate professor of history and director of the public history minor, and Marian Granfield, director of the art history with museum studies program, for guiding her studies.