Dr Katzenstein was born in 1947 in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of two pathologists who had emigrated from Germany in 1938. Her parents' careers began at Yale University School of Medicine, and among their colleagues was Dr. Averill A. Liebow, a renowned pulmonary pathologist who, coincidentally, was to have an important role in Dr. Katzenstein's career. After two years at Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, New York, Dr. Katzenstein entered the accelerated program at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Following graduation in 1971 she began an internship in Straight Medicine at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), by chance the same institution where Dr. Liebow had become Chairman of Pathology in 1968. Her aim was to become a hematologist and pursue a career in cancer research, but it did not take long to realize that clinical medicine was not for her. After completing her internship she remained at UCSD for her pathology training under the tutelage of Dr. Liebow and a number of other outstanding pathologists, including Dr.'s Sidney Saltzstein, Colin Bloor, Peter Lambert, Kurt Benirschke, John Gmelich, and Paul Wolff. During her three years of residency she reviewed Dr. Liebow's lung consultation cases daily and she participated in several research projects with him. She also had the opportunity to meet pathologists who had come from other institutions to study with Dr. Liebow, including Dr. Frederic Askin from Washington University. Following her residency, and despite being offered a staff position at UCSD by Dr. Liebow in 1975, she opted for a surgical pathology fellowship at Washington University under the direction of Dr. Walter Bauer. Dr. Katzenstein remained on the surgical pathology staff at Washington University after her fellowship, where she collaborated with Dr. Askin on numerous studies. They also presented a short course in Lung Biopsy Interpretation at the International Academy of Pathology from 1977 to 1981 which formed the basis of their book, Surgical Pathology of Non-Neoplastic Lung Disease. In 1979 she joined her husband, Dr. Michael Mazur, also a surgical pathologist, in the Division of Surgical Pathology at Northwestern University School of Medicine under the auspices of Dr. Hector Battifora. After a brief return to Washington University in 1981, she and her husband relocated to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1982 where she stayed until 1989. It was there that numerous collaborative efforts were begun with Dr. Jeffrey Myers who came as a fellow in 1984 and remained on the staff until 1989. In 1989 Dr. Katzenstein relocated to SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse where she remained until 1994, at which time she became an attending pathologist at Crouse Hospital, an affiliated private hospital. In 2002 she returned to SUNY Upstate as Vice Chair and Director of Anatomic Pathology.

Dr. Katzenstein has authored numerous articles in pulmonary pathology and has lectured widely in the field. Although she is best known for her work in non-neoplastic lung disease, she made contributions early in her career to the literature on neoplasms, including so-called sclerosing hemangioma, clear cell carcinoma, and metastatic renal carcinoma to the lung. Other studies encompassed such topics as diffuse alveolar damage, bronchocentric granulomatosis, lymphomatoid granulomatosis, transbronchial lung biopsy, granulomatous infections, allergic aspergillosis, chronic pneumonitis of infancy, and Wegener's granulomatosis. More recently she has been instrumental in defining the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias with papers on acute interstitial pneumonia, respiratory bronchiolitis, non-specific interstitial pneumonia, and usual interstitial pneumonia. Her paper on non-specific interstitial pneumonia in 1994 followed by a review in 1998 with Dr. Myers stimulated a new approach to the classification and treatment of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias that continues to be a subject of extensive research. Her book, Katzenstein and Askin's Surgical Pathology of Non-Neoplastic Lung Disease, first published in 1982 with Dr. Askin, is now in its 4^th edition.