About

With a high degree of professionalism, motivation and integrity, Kara Franker is a tourism executive who leads strategic planning and execution of marketing, communications and sales initiatives, including branding, budgeting, integrated international advertising campaigns, content creation and strategy, social media, public relations, website development and crisis communications. She’s also a lawyer.

As the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications for Visit Lauderdale, Kara currently manages a $10-million marketing budget, leads a team of creative and analytical tourism experts and reports regularly to community-led advisory boards.

Before joining Visit Lauderdale’s executive team, Kara was CEO and founder of her own tourism marketing and communications firm, which provided strategy, team management, client promotion, writing, research, on-air talent, video production and content creation services to convention and visitors bureaus.

A seasoned journalist, Kara has been featured as a travel expert for Coastal Living, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Travel Channel, Travelocity, Orbitz, HGTV, Huffington Post and more. Additionally, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of two luxury lifestyle print magazines for the award-winning Modern Luxury network of publications, including Modern Luxury Weddings South Florida & the Caribbean and Modern Luxury Interiors South Florida.

A licensed attorney in the state of Florida, Kara earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in journalism and strategic communications from the University of Kansas, William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications.