Rene Mallia Weiss-Cruz
| Eisner Intergenerational Music Program Manager
Rene Mallia Weiss-Cruz is a New York City native who moved to Los Angeles after living in Massachusetts for 10 years and earning a B.A. from Hampshire College and a Master’s of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At Hampshire College, Rene studied economics and ethnomusicology. They spent time traveling around the Dominican Republic, studying under various voodoo musicians to prepare for a thesis on the misrepresentation of Afro-Dominican culture in academia. While pursuing their Master's degree, Rene built on their social justice education, youth development, and organizational theories to address the need for more support of college transfer students and increase transfer students’ timely graduation rates.
As an ethnomusicologist, Rene is a trained vocalist and specializes in percussion instruments from around the world. Their favorite instruments are the Dominican tambora, the West African djembe, and the Indian tabla. They value music as a tool for community building and thrive on demonstrating those tools to students and community members alike as the Intergenerational Music Program Manager at HOLA.