About Natalie

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Natalie Marquez is the Founder of Grow Marketing + Communications, LLC, a firm that provides business development, marketing, branding, and communication support. Natalie has served a variety of startups in the healthcare and agriculture sectors. She also works closely with small businesses across the state of Illinois to provide strategic leadership and expertise to help companies achieve their marketing goals. Natalie also has an interest in supporting nonprofits by providing fCMO (fractional chief marketing officer) services. This allows nonprofits to access strategic marketing expertise and experience of a CMO without having to incur the full cost of hiring a full-time employee.

Natalie has served on the board of the Illinois Farmers Market Association since 2012, spending nearly nine years as the organization's Board Chair. In addition to her board duties, Natalie leads numerous trainings and webinars for farmers and farmers market managers on topics ranging from e-commerce to creating appealing farmers market displays.

Prior to founding Grow Marketing + Communication, Natalie worked for over a decade in municipal government, spending time at the Village of Skokie (Illinois) and City of Urbana (Illinois). Natalie has a double major in Journalism/Advertising and Political Science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Natalie was one of the 2016 Forty Under 40 award winner, a program of Central Illinois Business Magazine.

Besides owning Grow Marketing + Communications, LLC., Natalie enjoys swimming. She is a competitive swimmer with the Heat Masters Team and U.S. Masters Swimming (USMS). She is a USMS Long Distance All American, and has numerous state and national Top 10 swims in her age groups. When not in the water or helping you grow your marketing efforts, Natalie can be found working on her health and fitness, spending time with her husband and their two children, and wrangling the family's giant energetic dog, Taco.