Creative Media + Technology Track [ages 12-18]

Jamie Cohen - dad, DJ and sound guy - brings more than 40 years of live sound experience to the ZUMIX Z-TECH team. From a young age, Jamie has been fascinated with music and the effect it has on all of us. He got his start in the audio world interning at noted Boston studio Downtown Recorders, working with local and Boston-based national musicians. From there, Jamie was drawn to live sound and the immediacy of an in-person musical experience. Over the last 40 years, Jamie has worked with many local, national and international bands, as well as spending three years as the house sound engineer for the Boston production of Blue Man Group. Jamie also spent 20 years in the corporate world, working at famed audio company Lexicon and later at Extech/FLIR, managing technical support, customer service and technical training. In 2019, Jamie started his own sound reinforcement company, at the same time becoming a mentor at ZUMIX. In 2022, he stepped into the A/V Coordinator position, where he has found his happy place.

Rene Dongo, Radio Station Manager, joined ZUMIX in 2017. As a filmmaker, media maker and teaching artist, he has found the intersection of community and youth arts education to be a pivotal step to helping young people grow and find their voice in the communities where they live and learn. At ZUMIX, he works to support community and youth-produced radio programming. Outside of ZUMIX, Rene has worked as a teaching artist for the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston and The Urbano Project. His first teaching artist project focused on crafting radio pieces centered on spoken word poetry inspired by the community of Egleston Square. He is a graduate of Emerson College and continues creating work inspired by community perspectives and personal storytelling.