About the Author

I'm Chuck Bean. I was Executive Director of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments from 2012 to 2023: 24 member governments across Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and a staff of roughly 125. I also co-chaired the Major Metros Committee of the National Association of Regional Councils, and that work drew me into METREX, the Network of European Metropolitan Regions and Areas.

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In September 2023, at the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland, I met Vadym Boychenko, the elected Mayor of Mariupol, then serving in exile. I told him I did not know much about Ukraine, but that I would be glad to help where I could. I helped develop the curriculum for the Community Recovery Academy, founded by the Association of Ukrainian Cities and Mariupol Reborn, and he named me a Senior Advisor to Mariupol.

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In October 2025 I spoke at the Second International Forum of Agglomerations of Ukraine, in Lviv. Afterward, colleagues at the Lviv Agglomeration Association and elsewhere kept coming back with questions: How does it work in the United States? Do you have examples? I turned those answers into this book.

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I also advise participants in Harvard's Advancing Sustainable Development of Ukraine program at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and I hold a master's in public policy from Harvard.

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I am a practitioner, with no claim to expertise in Ukrainian law, European metropolitan governance, or development economics. I ran a complex regional council for a decade, engaged directly with Ukrainian colleagues in the field, and organized what I learned into a guide that Ukrainian policymakers and practitioners can use.

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I wrote this book pro bono, with no government or donor affiliation.

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LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chuck-bean-29b7554