Katherine Fernandez Rundle

Katherine Fernandez Rundle is Miami-Dade County's longest-serving State Attorney, first appointed in 1993 by Governor Lawton Chiles to complete the unexpired term of Janet Reno. In 1994 she became the first Cuban-American State Attorney in Florida history. She has been re-elected eight times, most recently unopposed in 2024. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Miami and a law degree and criminology diploma from the University of Cambridge in England. Her father, Dr. Carlos Benito Fernandez, was Miami's first Hispanic judge. She has faced criticism throughout her tenure for never prosecuting a police officer in a shooting-related death.

The State Attorney for the 11th Judicial Circuit is Miami-Dade County's top law enforcement officer, responsible for prosecuting all criminal cases in the county. The office serves as the legal arm of 37 different police departments across Miami-Dade. The State Attorney's office handles everything from misdemeanors to capital murder cases, operates the only Child Support Enforcement Office of any State Attorney in Florida, and runs multiple diversion and rehabilitation programs including the nation's first Drug Court, established in 1989.