Charles Royer is President of the Institute for Community Change (ICC) and National Program Director for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Urban Health Initiative. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Washington with appointments in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine and in the School of Public Affairs. 

From 1990 until 1994, Mr. Royer served as Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University and as Lecturer at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.  Prior to his appointment at the Institute of Politics, Charles Royer served as Mayor of Seattle for twelve years.  He was elected Mayor in 1977 following a career in newspaper and television journalism.  During his three terms as Mayor, Royer became a national spokesman for American cities in housing, the arts, health care, energy, civil liberties, and the needs of children and youth.  He served as President of the National League of Cities in 1983 and was named one of the top 20 American Mayors in 1988 by U. S. News and World Report.  In 1989, Seattle was named one of the ten best-managed cities in the nation by Business Month Magazine and Mr. Royer received the 1989 Distinguished Urban Mayor Award from the National Urban Coalition.

During his tenure as Mayor, Charles Royer was instrumental in bringing new investment to Seattle while maintaining the city's high quality of life.  Seattle was named the nation's "Most Livable City" in 1989 by Places Rated Almanac.  While Mayor, Royer led efforts to streamline city government; craft an international treaty with Canada for sustainable and low-cost electric power; develop low-income and affordable housing; create a community health-clinic system; establish the nation's most successful residential recycling program; and strengthen Seattle's neighborhoods with new land-use policies and zoning.

Royer was a member of the Democratic National Committee and a member of the Democratic Party's Platform Committee in 1988.  He served on the US Conference of Mayor's Advisory Board and was for seven years President of the American delegation to the Japan-American Conference of Mayors and Chamber of Commerce Presidents, which recently named him a life member.  Mr. Royer also chaired the National Advisory Committee to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Care for the Homeless Initiative, served on the National Commission on State and Local Public Service, the President's Commission on White House Fellows, and is a Trustee of Partners for Livable Communities.