Cynthia Brown (Cindy) is an educator, researcher, writer, and community-minded volunteer. Her professional career has been in higher education as a faculty member and administrator. Before she retired in June 2026, she was the Senior Associate Commissioner for Regulatory and Veterans Affairs at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.
Cindy currently serves as president of the board of the Berkshire County Historical Society – Arrowhead and is a member of the board of Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires, where she heads the governance committee. She has also served on the Executive Committee of BERK12 and was a trustee of Berkshire Arts and Technology Public Charter School.
Cindy also researches and presents on local and regional history. She will be making her compiled research on Berkshires Black people available in a new (free) database that will be linked to the 10 Million Names project of American Ancestors. Her scholarly publications have included co-editing the institutional history, "Lesley University: Celebrating Excellence 1909-2009 (2011)," as well as book chapters and articles.