Jonathan Katz is director of Democracy Initiatives and a senior fellow with The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) based in the Washington, DC, office. Prior to joining GMF from 2014-17, Katz was the deputy assistant administrator in the Europe and Eurasia bureau at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he managed U.S. development policy, energy security, economic growth, and democracy, and governance programs in Europe and Eurasia. He led USAID programs in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Eastern and Central Europe, the Black Sea and Caucasus Regions, the Western Balkans, and regional programs that included Russia. Katz served as the U.S. government co-chair of political, economic, trade, and development working groups with the European Union, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Poland, Romania, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Prior to joining USAID, from 2010-14, Katz served as a senior advisor to the assistant secretary in the International Organization Affairs Bureau at the U.S. Department of State. In that role Katz served as a speech writer and advised the assistant secretary and other senior U.S. government officials on key national security, multilateral, and development priorities at the UN and at international organizations.

Prior to joining the State Department in 2010, Katz had several leadership roles in the U.S. Congress. From 2007-10 Katz served as the staff director of the Europe Subcommittee of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. From 2003-06 he was the minority staff director for the Europe and Emerging Threats Subcommittee of this Committee. From 1999-2006 he was the legislative director and senior foreign policy advisor for Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL). Katz was instrumental in the creation and leadership of the Congressional Caucus on U.S.-Turkish Relations and Turkish Americans, the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, the U.S.-Kazakhstan Interparliamentary Friendship Group, the Congressional Indonesia Caucus, and the Congressional Study Group on Turkey.

Earlier in his career, Katz helped to lead several congressional campaigns. He received a bachelor's in speech communications from Syracuse University in 1994.