Katarina Vara

Community Affairs

Manager

Katarina Vara first joined the Broward Sheriff's Office as a summer hire and student intern assigned to the Grants Management Division in 2005. She continued volunteering with BSO's Department of Law Enforcement (DLE) throughout high school, assisting with numerous community events and supporting the DLE Business Office during emergency operations. Katarina later began an internship with the Public Information Office and Community Affairs in 2010 until she was hired in 2011.

During her career at BSO, Katarina served as a Records Technician in the Records Division and a Child Investigative Specialist in Child Protective Investigations Section. She was an Administrative Specialist and Community Programs Supervision Specialist in Pretrial Services, where she acted as a liaison on behalf of the division to Command staff, the Broward County community and external vendors. Katarina also served as a speaker for BSO's Citizens Academy on behalf of the Department of Community Programs (DOCP) from 2016 to 2017. She later became a Special Projects Coordinator assigned to the Training Division, where she administered the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program and BSO's Citizens Academy. She returned to Community Affairs in 2022 when she was selected as the Community Affairs Manager.

Katarina is a Board Member and Treasurer for a non-profit organization, Shining Star, and a member of the National Citizens Police Academy Association. She achieved the Florida Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Practitioner Designation, which focuses on developing comprehensive crime prevention programs for Florida's residential population and commercial industry. She is currently working on completing the leadership trilogy with FBI-LEEDA.

Katarina was born in Texas and raised in South Florida. She earned a bachelor's degree in Public Communication with minors in Business Administration and Sociology from Florida Atlantic University and then a master's degree in Criminal Justice with a minor in Public Administration from Nova Southeastern University.