Ballet Arizona hired two new directors, Leslie Marquez as marketing director and Karina Felix as its finance director.

“We are thrilled to bring Leslie and Karina on board to head up Ballet Arizona’s marketing and finance departments,” said Samantha Turner, executive director at Ballet Arizona, in a prepared statement.

“Their experience will help us maximize our efforts in bringing professional ballet and classical dance to the Valley.”

Ms. Marquez brings more than 16 years of broad-based marketing, public relations and advertising experience to the role of marketing director, including six years with Alabama Ballet as marketing and public relations director, according to a press release.

Recently, she was a residential marketing specialist at KS StateBank where she managed marketing activities for a multi-state team of 40 loan originators. She also acted as a marketing and communications specialist at law firm Maynard Cooper & Gale and marking director at Cummings Creative Group.

Ms. Felix, noted as a highly-trained accounting and finance professional, brings more than 14 years of experience to her role as director of finance at Ballet Arizona, the release said.

Her career includes serving as the operations and financial director at Mi Familia Vota, overseeing compliance in six states and accounting manager at Area Agency on Aging Region One Inc. supporting the fiscal management of a $30 million budget.

She has a master's of business administration from University of Phoenix and master's of science in accounting from Keller School of Management at Devry University, detailed the release.

Ballet Arizona is a nonprofit arts organization that includes the only professional ballet company in the Valley, the School of Ballet Arizona and community outreach programs that happen throughout the year, the release added.

Visit: balletaz.org.