A Foreign Service officer for the past 22 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), I arrived in Kyiv in August 2023. I currently serve as Acting Deputy Mission Director for USAID Ukraine. I provide strategic leadership and operations management for USAID’s development assistance for energy, agriculture, private sector development, democratic governance, health, and other sectors, oversight and monitoring for direct budget support, and coordination of humanitarian aid. It is rewarding to contribute to helping Ukraine strengthen its capacity to resist Russia’s aggression, restore infrastructure and services damaged by attacks, and advance reforms to fight corruption, modernize, and integrate with Europe and other international partners. I have wonderful memories from my graduate studies at the Harriman Institute in the 1990s, which sparked my passion for better understanding and contributing to the transformative changes in this region.