A career built around student life

Katz’s career reflects a broad and sustained engagement with student affairs leadership across multiple institutional contexts. His professional experience includes senior leadership roles at Southwestern University, the University of South Carolina Upstate, and Millsaps College, where his work encompassed institutional planning, student development, organizational leadership, and the creation of programs designed to enhance students’ sense of belonging and engagement.

Dr. Katz most recently served as Vice President and Dean for Student Life at Southwestern University. Prior to joining Southwestern, he served as Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at the University of South Carolina Upstate, where he provided leadership for a staff of approximately 50 professionals and a comprehensive portfolio of student programs and services. Earlier in his career, Katz spent 16 years at Millsaps College, where he served as Vice President and Senior Dean for Student Life and Assistant Professor of Education. His work at Millsaps extended beyond student affairs administration, as he served on the President’s Cabinet and participated in institutional planning efforts that connected student development with broader institutional priorities.

Across these positions, Katz’s work consistently emphasized the development of environments in which students could build community, assume leadership, and experience a meaningful sense of belonging. At Millsaps, his initiatives included living-learning communities centered on international perspectives and civic engagement, a Senior Year Experience, leadership recognition programs, and efforts to strengthen inclusion and community. He also helped establish the African-American Student Advisory Circle, DiverCity Council, SAFE Space, and an International Student Organization.

At USC Upstate, Katz continued this emphasis while contributing to broader institutional and academic initiatives. His work included developing a divisional strategic plan, establishing The Upstate 7, the university’s first undergraduate hall of fame recognizing outstanding graduating students, and collaborating with Academic Affairs to develop a leadership certificate and academic leadership course.

Throughout Katz’s career, despite the different institutional contexts and specific initiatives, a consistent theme appears: his leadership has consistently focused on developing structures, programs, and opportunities that promote student engagement, leadership growth, inclusion, and a strong sense of institutional connection.

The work is personal: Advocating for the Profession

Today, Katz’s professional life has entered a different phase. In July 2025, he took an extended leave of absence to provide care for an immediate family member. Although he stepped away from a full-time senior leadership position, his commitment to student affairs and the broader profession has remained evident. His continued interests include leadership, motivation, professional development, and the evolving role of student affairs within higher education. Just as importantly, his perspective remains grounded in concern for the professionals who carry out this work.

That concern is particularly evident in Katz’s reflections on the challenges facing emerging student affairs professionals. He identifies compensation, student loan debt, career mobility, and the demands placed on early-career professionals as significant considerations for those entering and navigating the field. Rather than viewing professional mobility solely as a matter of advancement, Katz encourages professionals to maintain the flexibility to recognize when a position or institution no longer supports their professional growth.

His advice can be summarized in two words: “Pack lightly.”

For Katz, professional flexibility involves understanding one’s value, remaining open to change, and avoiding circumstances that unnecessarily limit future opportunities. The advice also reflects a broader argument about the responsibility institutions have to create sustainable conditions for student affairs professionals.

Katz similarly emphasizes the need for institutions to recognize student affairs as an essential contributor to institutional outcomes. He points specifically to enrollment and retention as central institutional priorities and argues that student affairs professionals should be prepared to demonstrate how their work contributes to those outcomes.

This emphasis on evidence is central to Katz’s approach. Describing himself as a “data-driven nerd,” he advocates for the intentional use of assessment and data to articulate the impact of student affairs work. For Katz, data does not diminish the relational or developmental dimensions of the profession; rather, it provides a means of making those contributions visible.

Katz’s perspective ultimately places two responsibilities alongside one another: professionals must advocate for their own development and sustainability, while institutions must recognize and substantiate the broader institutional value of student affairs. His emphasis on data, therefore, is not simply about demonstrating that student affairs matters. It is about developing the evidence necessary to explain how and where the work contributes to student and institutional outcomes.

Four decades of change and a profession still worth fighting for.

After more than four decades in student affairs, Katz has witnessed significant changes in higher education and in the ways institutions understand the college experience. Yet his reflections demonstrate a continued commitment to the student experience and to the role student affairs plays in shaping it.

His discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic offers particular insight into this perspective. Dr.Katz described the disruption students experienced and the extent to which the pandemic altered many of the experiences traditionally associated with college. For him, the consequences cannot be measured solely through academic indicators such as degree completion. The disruption also affected the relationships, communities, traditions, and formative experiences that contribute to students’ understanding of their institution.

Katz believes these experiences are an essential part of higher education. College should provide students with opportunities to develop meaningful relationships, participate in communities, create lasting memories, and establish connections to their institution that extend beyond graduation. When those opportunities are diminished, institutions risk losing an important dimension of the student experience as well as opportunities to cultivate lasting relationships with their alumni.

This perspective also informs Katz’s advocacy for student affairs and his emphasis on demonstrating the profession's impact. He pointed to student engagement, fraternity and sorority life, residential experiences, and other co-curricular opportunities as sources of meaningful evidence about students’ experiences and development. In his view, professionals should examine how participation in these experiences relates to outcomes such as retention, persistence, graduation, and student well-being.

For Katz, the significance of student affairs is therefore closely tied to the significance of the college experience itself. Student affairs professionals not only support students through college; they help create the relationships, communities, and experiences that give the institution meaning. Demonstrating the impact of that work, he argues, is essential to ensuring that its value remains visible within the broader institution.

A Gavel & Gravel Honoree Looking Ahead

Recognition through the Gavel & Gravel Society carries particular significance for Katz at this stage of his career. After decades of leadership in student affairs, he reflected on how recognition takes on a different meaning over time. While he values acknowledgment of work completed, his attention remains focused on the professionals and students who will shape the field in the years ahead.

During his conversation about SACSA, Katz spoke with enthusiasm about connecting with emerging professionals, learning about their work, and seeing the energy and potential they bring to the profession. Reflecting on the next generation of student affairs professionals, he shared, “You’re the folks on whom we’re hoping that the profession continues to be perpetuated because of your talent, your intelligence, your drive.”

That perspective offers an important lens through which to understand Katz’s legacy. His career is reflected not only in the programs he developed, the leadership positions he held, or the institutional initiatives to which he contributed, but also in his continued investment in the people who will carry the profession forward.

The Work Continues

Today, Katz continues to write, teach, speak, mentor, and engage with the student affairs profession while providing care for his family. Although his professional circumstances have changed, his engagement with the field has continued.

His career demonstrates that student affairs leadership extends beyond any single position or institution. It can be expressed through advocacy for students, institutional leadership, professional mentorship, the development of meaningful opportunities, and a sustained commitment to those entering the field.

As Katz enters the Gavel & Gravel Society, his story reflects both a substantial career in student affairs and an ongoing investment in its future. After more than four decades in the profession, he remains engaged with the work and, perhaps most significantly, with the people who will continue it.