You might not know her yet, but you probably know her work. Briony Hynson is the deputy director of the Neighborhood Design Center (NDC).
With the NDC, Hynson spends her time working with historically disinvested Baltimore and Prince George’s County communities on projects that support healthy, thriving neighborhoods. The NDC designs recreation facilities and parks and ensures communities have access to trail systems and public art.
Hynson knows the value of neighborhood spaces because she lives locally in Catonsville with her family. Hynson and her husband, Marshall, have a 7-year-old son named Tristan and a dog named Savannah.
What do you enjoy about being a parent?
It’s an adventure. We have a lot of fun, and we try a lot of new things. It’s just amazing to kind of experience the world through a child’s eyes, and revisit places that I’m familiar with and see how he’s able to get so excited about everyday things or new adventures. We love to travel, and we do a lot of outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, biking and getting to know the state park near our house.
What [about in your career, working with the NDC?]
I love collaborating, and I’m really inspired by the people that are around me. We’re a very mission-driven organization, and my colleagues are just brilliant, inspiring and dedicated. The community partners we work with and the volunteers are also really exceptional in terms of their focus to make local changes, and [they] have a focus on shared community benefits that every neighborhood deserves.
How do you find a work-life balance?
It’s something I work on—it’s definitely a challenge. It’s been a significant challenge coming through the pandemic and trying to make sure that your family is healthy, and also making sure that our small nonprofit is viable, and everybody has a job and the organization can survive and thrive as well. It’s been a fairly significant challenge, but I think I’m still working on trying to strike that balance.
What is something you hope your son learns from you?
To be able to be flexible as life changes and the world changes. To be able to still grow, and learn and go new places and meet new people. The world will keep surprising us, and I think it might be disappointing to think it can only be one way.
What’s something you learned from your son?
He’s just so full-on all the time. He’s so interested in the world, he asks so many questions and he’s just taken with things, and he wants to figure everything out. Being so engaged in the world is such a wonderful way to be, and sometimes adults can be a little checked out or only in their own lane, only about their own priorities. I love to see that sort of openness of childhood where everything is fair game and everything’s just exciting.
Family Favorites
Meal: Homemade pizzas on Friday nights
Dessert: Taharka Brothers ice cream
Local Spot: Patapsco [Valley] State Park. It’s amazing to get out and hike, and bike and splash around in the stream and bird watch—just taking it all in. It’s a really beautiful place and wonderful escape.
Vacation Spot: We try to travel to different places every year and try to get a new country under our belt, so we’ve done Canada, Iceland, England, Belgium, Costa Rica… It’s definitely a real high priority for our family to get our of the states and get that shift in perspective.
Family Activity: Something outdoorsy—anything to keep moving. My kid has a lot of energy and just needs outlets.
