New Team Updates! Welcome Steve Garza and Richard Hartnell
Last Updated: October 28, 2024
We are thrilled to welcome two amazing new leaders to the DanceSafe team! With a shared passion for harm reduction and a wealth of experience, we know they will help us push our mission forward!
Let’s meet our newest team members!
Steve Garza (he/him), Vice President of Digital Media
Areas of focus: Digital strategy & innovation, brand management, audience growth, media relations, marketing
DanceSafe is pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Garza as Vice President of Digital Media, joining the organization’s national leadership team.
Steve Garza, a seasoned music industry veteran and digital media executive, brings over 20 years of experience in the music and entertainment industry, specializing in concerts, festivals, radio, and digital transformation. His career has positioned him at the forefront of digital innovation within the music industry, collaborating with major broadcasting companies such as Regent Broadcasting, Townsquare Media, Clear Channel Media + Entertainment, iHeartMedia, Entercom Communications, and Audacy as well as prominent artists and record labels.
Garza began his career in the mid-1990s as a rave promoter during the early days of the American electronic music scene, producing events across the Southwest in the U.S. and in Mexico. His first encounter with DanceSafe came in 1999 when they reached out to partner with Steve’s events, marking the beginning of his long-standing commitment to harm reduction and safety in the rave and electronic music communities.
A decade later, Garza transitioned into radio, where he spearheaded marketing efforts for major rock concerts and festivals. His leadership in this field culminated in his role as the first Interactive Program Director for Regent Broadcasting/Townsquare Media in El Paso, Texas, where he played a pivotal role in shift from traditional radio to the emerging digital landscape. Since then, Garza continued to evolve, serving as the first Digital Program Director for iHeartMedia in Atlanta, leading digital transformation initiatives and contributing to the major market beta test for the iHeartRadio app prior to its launch. During this time, Garza also launched PrototypeRadio, a forward thinking EDM radio platform that aired on terrestrial radio and reached national syndication through iHeartRadio. PrototypeRadio introduced electronic music to mainstream U.S. radio, with 75% of the featured artists making their American radio debut on the platform. Artists featured included the likes of Orbital, Deadmau5, Justice, Kaskade, Skrillex, Grooverider, Juan Atkins, and Avicii.
He later served as the first Digital Brand Manager for V-103, one of the most significant legacy Urban (Hip Hop) radio stations, and Nielsen’s top-rated urban radio station in the United States in 2020.
Garza’s career is marked by his expertise in leading digital initiatives, developing innovative strategies, and driving brand transformation. He has received 23 industry awards for his contributions that include digital media, marketing, and brand development. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Music Business/Management at Berklee College of Music. In his free time, Steve enjoys traveling and immersing himself in diverse musical and artistic experiences, which fuel his creativity in the industry.
A message from Steve: “It’s incredible to see how far DanceSafe has come since its inception. It’s been over 24 years since I first collaborated with the organization as a rave promoter. To now join DanceSafe as the first Vice President of Digital Media is both an honor and a full-circle moment for me. I am deeply passionate about the mission and look forward to supporting the amplification of our message, fostering deeper community engagement, while expanding DanceSafe’s reach and impact in this ever-evolving digital age.”
Richard Hartnell (he/they), Vice President of Outreach
Areas of focus: Outreach program development, digital infrastructure, financial & ops admin, coalition building
Richard Hartnell (he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, scientist, organizer, and obsessive autodidact. After being expelled by his hometown community college for having too many credits, he joined a circus collective in Oakland, CA and spent the next decade touring around the world, surrounded by DanceSafe’s community at large.
While living in the Bay Area he earned a full scholarship from UC Santa Cruz to study cognitive neuroscience. During this time, he was recruited to restart a dormant chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy; with the support of the university’s student health center, Richard launched a drug checking program using DanceSafe reagents to keep hundreds of counterfeit doses off the market. With the chapter quickly becoming one of the most active in the organization, Richard was elected to a two-year stint on SSDP’s Board of Directors.
Around this time, he also fell in with various psychedelic sitting groups and has now spent a number of years taking care of festival goers with the Zendo Project and White Bird Rock Medicine at Burning Man, the Oregon Eclipse Festival, and the Oregon Country Fair.
After graduating, Richard spent some time on a lab bench in California’s new recreational cannabis market using HPLC, LC/MSMS and qPCR to detect cannabinoid potency, pesticides, and microbial contaminants. After moving back to the Pacific Northwest to support family during a time of crisis, he found himself locked in by the COVID-19 pandemic and started a tiny permaculture farm while working remotely for a short stint at MAPS Public Benefit Corporation (now Lykos Therapeutics) and streaming DJ sets, rising to the top 1% of streamers on Twitch.tv.
As the lockdown concluded, still in a medium-sized town with very few jobs in STEM, Richard fell back into a swath of practices including event production, circus arts, farming, coding, and fundraising. But after years staying afloat on various part-time hustles, he is ecstatic to join DanceSafe full-time to help connect and bolster the festival and dance community with his unique blend of science, passion, art, strategy, and philosophy.
While not agitating for a more efficient and equitable world, Richard spends his free time making music, juggling, gaming, writing, growing food, and petting five darling chickens.