Lecturer
Access and Belonging Advocacy Group Coordinator
WSBU-FM, 88.3 “The Buzz” Faculty Advisor
Bob Koop Lab Coordinator
SBU-TV Associate Advisor
Office phone: (716) 375-2059; Cell: (716) 207-5641
Send an email
Scott Sackett is a non-fiction filmmaker and public media producer with a background in radio journalism whose work has appeared nationally on PBS, APT, NETA, Indigenous Connections, NPR, and Amazon Prime and internationally on Public Radio International, AP Network News, and the North American and European film festival circuits.
Prior to joining the Jandoli School faculty, he was an adjunct instructor at SUNY Niagara (NCCC) where he taught courses in communication studies, German, and Italian. He also served as an NCCCinephiles film series presenter, NCCC Film & Animation Festival judge, digital media curriculum advisor, Outdoor Activities Club group leader, and College Acceleration Program faculty liaison to area high school German teachers.
The Greek philosopher Plutarch observed that teaching is like kindling a fire. My goal is to spark curiosity, ignite a love of learning, and fuel students’ high achievements. I guide them to think critically and creatively, act wisely with compassion and integrity, and live with purpose.
My work focuses on finding compelling but seldom-heard voices and sharing their stories in their own words and creative expressions with public media audiences.
My current research is conducted in partnership with Seneca documentary filmmaker Caleb Abrams under the auspices of the Seneca Nation with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It aims to develop a community story exchange and interpretive social history podcast and public radio series that documents Seneca oral traditions—stories of the Senecas’ distant and near ancestors, elders, and younger generations of Seneca. The series travels across Seneca and Haudenosaunee country today, visiting cultural and landmark sites and conversing with people living in modern and traditional ways, exploring connections to Seneca ancestry. The features reveal the paradoxes of divergent perspectives of history, time, one’s place, the land and environment that we all share, and of future generations. They also examine the interrelationship between the Seneca language, Onöndowa’ga:’ Gawë:nö’, and a Seneca worldview, inviting listeners to reassess their understanding of history and our places in the world and to consider another way of looking at our shared present, past, and future.
I enjoy birding, foraging, hiking, backpacking, camping, kayaking, cross-country skiing, reading history and natural history, and recording nature sounds, and I am a novice learner of Onöndowa’ga:’ Gawë:nö’ (Seneca).
I currently serve as a trustee of the Cuba Circulating Library in Cuba, New York, and for many years served on the board and executive committee of Literacy New York Buffalo-Niagara.