High-resolution portait |
Through multiple careers, Charles Royer
has become one of America's foremost urban experts, commentators,
executives and enablers.
As mayor, he led Seattle through a 12-year period
of rapid regional growth, innovation, and ultimate recognition as both
the nation's "Most Livable" and "Best Managed" city. A long-time
reporter and television personality before entering politics, Royer
left the mayor's office to teach at the John F. Kennedy School of
Government where he also directed Harvard's Institute of Politics from
1990 to 1995. For a decade he was national program director of the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation's Urban Health Initiative -- an effort to improve
the health and safety of children across five of the country's most
challenging regions. Most recently, he formed and heads the Seattle-based Institute for Community Change, engaged in major foundation-based work to increase health and life opportunities for low-income people in regions across the U.S.
Continuing his interest in urban planning and community
development, Royer for several years served as the on-air host and writer for the
American Architectural Foundation's series of television programs appearing on PBS, "Saving America's Cities by Design."
In the mayor's office from 1978 to 1989, Royer
led efforts to re-write Seattle's land use policies and zoning laws,
create the nation's most respected energy conservation and residential
recycling programs, develop a comprehensive community health system,
institutionalize a sophisticated internationally replicated program
called, "KidsPlace," reinvent the city as a place for children.
In 1983, Royer was elected president
of the National League of Cities. He chaired the National Advisory
Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Care for the
Homeless Initiative, served on the National Commission on State and Local
Public Service, was a member of the President's Commission on White House
Fellows, and serves as a trustee of Partners for Livable Places and as
a member of the Aspen Institute's Roundtable on Comprehensive Community
Development.
Royer was named one of the top twenty
American Mayors in 1988 by U.S. News and World Report, received the 1989
Distinguished Urban Mayor Award from the National Urban Coalition, and the
"Most Valuable Public Official" award from City and State Magazine.
Today, he speaks nationally on a variety
of subjects, including urban planning and design issues, regional health,
resource development and conservation issues, and communications and
strategy development.
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