Granville Township Trustee Bryn Bird has always sought to take care of others before herself – just as her parents taught her while growing up in McKean Township in Licking County. Her cows came first.
“I have pictures of me with my hair done and makeup on, ready to go to my senior prom, but I still had to put a plastic bag over my head and go out and feed my cows before I could go to prom,” Bird said. “We had to take care of our animals before we took care of ourselves.”
Her growing family and her family’s farm, which she co-owns, came next.
Then, it was her community.
The 40-year-old Licking County native has been a township trustee for seven years and remains co-owner of Bird’s Haven Farms. And this year, she is running as a Democrat in the Licking County Commissioner race against incumbent Republican Duane Flowers, who was first elected in 2012.
And if Bird wins, she’ll be the first Democrat among the county commissioners in 20 years.
“I’ve always been told ‘you’d be a great commissioner, but you can’t because you’re a Democrat,’” Bird told The Reporting Project. “I really believe that partisan politics hurts communities and that partisan politics doesn’t really have a place as a county commissioner.”
Bird’s first brush with public life came while participating in the extemporaneous category in Future Farmers of America’s agricultural speaking contest. Bird, who graduated from Northridge High School in 2002, participated in the school’s FFA chapter and grew up showing animals at the Hartford Fair.
“I was on a stage in front of like 20,000 people. I mean, it was crazy in Louisville, Kentucky, and my speech was on genetically modified crops,” Bird said.
Looking back, Bird believes her late mother knew that she had found her calling.
“I found the speech a while ago,” Bird said. “I was going through some of my mom’s stuff and it made me cry because she was freaked out when I won.”
Following her passion at home on the farm, and participating in FFA, Bird went to Miami University in Ohio for zoology. While attending the university, she spent a semester at sea, cruising from port to port and city to city.
Amid her globe-trotting, Bird has never lost her pride or faith in Licking County.
“I’ve never lost that, in the curiosity of the world, that Licking County is an incredible place,” Bird said. “But we are a small place, you know, in the vastness of the world.”
During her junior year, Bird took an internship with the American Public Health Association in Washington, D.C., where she quickly informed her colleagues where they would see her next.
“I told everybody I was going to be the Surgeon General, and one day my boss said, ‘Why don’t you email the Surgeon General and ask him how he did it,’” Bird said. “I was like, ‘yeah, why don’t I?’ So I did. And he responded.”
The Surgeon General at the time was Richard Carmona. After discussing her aspirations, Carmona gave Bird a new perspective on her goals.
“He said, ‘I really think you don’t want to be a doctor. I think you want to do public health and the study around health sciences.’”
She applied to George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, and earned her graduate degree in occupational and environmental public health with a focus on epidemiology.
In 2008, Bird married Brian Walsh – who she met through roommates while Walsh attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland – and the couple relocated to Norfolk, Virginia, where they lived until Bird’s mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2012.
Always one to embrace different viewpoints, Bird did not let their conflicting political opinions get in the way of enjoying each other’s company.
“I was voting for Bush, and he was voting for Kerry,” Bird said. “We were getting in these huge fights, and our friends were like, ‘I don’t think you guys should date,’ but we just loved it.”
Their friends were wrong, and 20 years later, Bird and Walsh are happier than ever, lifting each other in their careers and their roles as parents to three daughters. Walsh has taken an active role in helping Bird’s Licking County Commissioner campaign.
“He took the day off work and he just texted me he’s put up 24 large signs. My husband is the number one supportive spouse in the entire world, and I surely could not do my township role or run for commissioner if I didn’t have a husband who was so supportive.”
Bird believes her unique knowledge from Capitol Hill and abroad and a lifetime spent living in Licking County gives her the right experience to tackle the distinctive needs of Licking County as it transforms and advances.
“Under this current climate of inflation, child-care costs, housing costs, knowing the pressures that I feel, I think often: how are other families surviving it?”
Her life as a parent has kept the issues faced by families at the forefront of her mind.
“Being a parent, for me, the biggest thing I think about is the pressures that so many people are under,” Bird said.
Showing where she stands with both red and blue campaign signs, Bird said she wants what’s best for the people in Licking County, and she believes that politics simply do not belong in that conversation.
While serving as a Granville Township Trustee, Bird aided in efforts to relocate the Granville Fire Station to its current home on S. Main Street, led COVID-19 related safety measures, and worked on comprehensive planning for Granville. She also helped protect hundreds of acres of farmland through the Granville Open Space Program and fought for the creation of the joint economic development district with the Village of Granville.
Read more: Granville Council approves Joint Economic Development District Agreement on Sept. 18
Her goals as commissioner, she said, are similar to what she’s accomplished as a township representative: to support the community as it grows and changes. That includes fully staffing county offices like the planning and engineering departments, as well as the county prosecutor to “better serve Licking County challenges and needs.”
But Bird’s work isn’t limited to Granville. She was one of the founders of the Canal Market District Farmers Market in Newark – the first market to accept food assistance programs in Licking County – and has served on a variety of leadership boards throughout Licking, including Explore Licking County and the YMCA.
“I don’t count just my township time is getting me ready for this,” Bird said. “I count the time at the Canal Market District, working with the City of Newark, with the nonprofits and with the other agencies to get that off the ground. I’ve been working in this community since I moved back in 2012. I’ve earned the respect from leadership on both sides and from all areas of the county.”
Noah Fishman writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.