Dr. Katz was assigned to PKSOI in July, 2011. 

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, U.S. Department of State, with the rank of Counselor, he recently completed an 18-month assignment as the Deputy Director, Force Reintegration Cell, at ISAF Headquarters, Kabul, Afghanistan. Before that he served a two-year detail as a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department and State Department Advisor at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He received his PhD in Anthropology (UCLA 1982) based in part on two years of ethnographic research he conducted in Nuristan, eastern Afghanistan during the mid-70s. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1984, he has had assignments in Iceland, Afghanistan (during the Soviet Occupation), Yemen, Estonia, Pakistan, and Eritrea. He also served as a Civilian Observer with the Multinational Force and Observers based in the Sinai, Egypt.

Dr. Katz has spent over 10 years in positions both in Washington and abroad dealing with Pakistan and Afghanistan. He served as the Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate, Peshawar, Pakistan (1999-2002) and as Deputy Director, Office of Pakistan and Bangladesh, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (2004-6). Dr. Katz also served as the first State Department Representative at the Provincial Reconstruction Team for Afghanistan's Nuristan Province (2006-7).  

 A resident of Washington State, he also has a home in Tallinn, Estonia.