Judy Katz has been a resident of Maryland and Baltimore County since 1976. Her work life has been eclectic, always leaving time for volunteer work from the House of Ruth to playing handbells at an Episcopal Church to cooking for a Catholic soup kitchen to working with babies at a pediatric hospital.

She started with political volunteerism in 1980 and has worked on numerous local and state campaigns since then. She is currently secretary of the board of the Central Baltimore County Democratic Club and treasurer of the Baltimore Ethical Society. Her political philosophy is a reflection of a basic tenet of her religious upbringing in the Ethical Movement, to "work together to improve our world and the world of our children", and she believes that the political sphere is one in which we can better the conditions of all in our community, be it defined as local, national, or the world.

Judy and her husband Richard, a professor of Political Science, live in Baltimore County. They have two grown daughters. One is a Special Education teacher in Florida. The other, a recipient of the political gene, is a lawyer currently working in the political sphere in Washington, D.C.