Roberta Katz

Senior Research Scholar at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS)

Roberta Katz was involved in helping to establish the DCI program at Stanford and has been a DCI advisor for many years.  She is a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS). She is also a co-author of the book Gen Z, Explained: The Art of Living in a Digital Age (University of Chicago Press, 2021), which describes the findings from a multi-year, interdisciplinary study of the behaviors and values of American and British Gen Zers and discusses the historical, technological, and social trends that have influenced them.

Katz holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Columbia University as well as a JD from the University of Washington. She was in private law practice before becoming the General Counsel and Senior Vice President of McCaw Cellular Corporation (now AT&T Wireless) and, subsequently, Netscape Communications Corporation. Between July 2004 and September 2017, she served directly under Stanford University Presidents John Hennessy and Marc Tessier-Lavigne as their Associate Vice President for Strategic Planning. She also served as President Tessier-Lavigne’s interim Chief of Staff. Katz has been deeply involved in the facilitation of a variety of interdisciplinary research initiatives at Stanford, and she is a current member of various Stanford advisory boards. She is also a member of the Boards of Trustees of the Exploratorium (SF) and the National Parks Conservation Association (DC).