Allyn Media’s Ryan Trimble is Cheering for Dallas to Succeed with More Parks, Housing

Besides being one of the most likable and energetic guys in Dallas, Ryan Trimble, a vice president at powerhouse public relations firm Allyn Media, is also a champion for the city he calls home. You might say he’s one of Dallas’ biggest cheerleaders. 

Born and raised in Albuquerque, N.M., Trimble came to Dallas in 2001 to study corporate communications and public affairs at Southern Methodist University. He also earned a degree in Spanish, took the LSAT, and finished a master’s degree at SMU. But he did a whole lot more than hit the books during his college years. 

Trimble, a three-sport athlete in high school, got noticed for his, let’s say enthusiasm, at an SMU football game shortly after he arrived in the Lone Star State. 

“When I first got here, I’d gone to a scrimmage and I was very spirited in the stands, and this cheerleader guy saw me and asked if I wanted to try out to be a cheerleader,” Trimble recalled. 

And the rest is history. Trimble cheered all four years for his beloved Mustangs and was the head cheerleader during his junior and senior years. Twenty-plus years later, his tailgates before every home game are well-known around town and he has an unrivaled collection of SMU gear. When we talked to Trimble days before SMU’s playoff game vs. Penn State, he was simply giddy. #PonyUp, right? 

“It’s a great time to be alive,” he said. “I fly the colors high. My closet is full of red, white, and blue polos. I shifted a lot of that to my office because I’m running out of room.” 

The Mustangs fell short on Saturday, falling to Penn State 38-10.

Chief of Stuff 

During college, Trimble worked as a waiter, as college students do, and was the managing editor of the Daily Campus newspaper. He spent summers working in a fine dining restaurant in Albuquerque and running a karaoke bar at night. Back in Dallas, Trimble scored a job as “the yard sign guy” for Republican State Rep. Dan Branch. 

“I ended up working for Chairman Branch for almost 10 years,” Trimble said. “He was a fabulous leader and representative and I really loved my time working for him. I ended up being his, I’ll call it ‘chief of stuff.’ I did a little bit of everything. I was traipsing all over the great state of Texas for his attorney general race in 2014.” 

The legislator’s bid for AG was unsuccessful but along the way Trimble made some contacts at Allyn Media who had done public relations work on the campaign. 

“They came to me after the AG run and said they wanted to talk to me about potentially working for them,” he said. “I came over in 2015 and helped run Mayor Mike Rawlings’ re-election campaign. I stuck around and have done a little more political work. I moved into corporate public affairs. What I’m really passionate about now is I’ve gotten the opportunity to do our firm’s conservation practice work, which is really fun.” 

He also co-hosts the popular Deconstructing Dallas podcast with Allyn Media colleague Shawn Williams. 

Now in its seventh season, Deconstruction Dallas recently featured Dallas’ new Economic Development Corp. CEO Linda McMahon, president of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce Harrison Blair, Downtown Dallas Inc. president and CEO Jennifer Scripps, and SMU Athletic Director Rick Hart. 

“We’ve had people say, ‘This would be a good idea for your podcast,’ and, you know, that’s flattering and it’s fun,” Trimble said. 

Family Man and Land Man

Trimble’s wife Lauren is also no stranger to politics. She’s Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins’ chief of staff (not stuff). 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lauren was heavily involved in emergency response efforts countywide and Trimble had to act as a “homeschool dad” to their children, now ages 8 and 5. 

“I was creating all this different curriculum and we got really into big cats, jungle cats, tigers, leopards, and jaguars, oh my,” he said. “We had all the kid books, but I started getting into it myself and got some big kid books. Wildlife conservation has kind of become a passion for me. And then Allyn allowed me to create a conservation practice group.”

One of his clients is Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit based in Dallas that is working on projects like the Five Mile Creek Greenbelt, which, upon completion, will feature 17 miles of trails through Oak Cliff and southern Dallas. 

“They will connect to retail and schools and healthcare, but there will be three new signature parks included in the project,” Trimble said. “One of those is already open, South Oak Cliff Renaissance. It’s a really cool, visionary plan.” 

Parks and Housing

Trimble said he was all in when Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson came up with the idea to turn vacant, city-owned property into neighborhood parks and appointed Garrett Boone in 2022 as the Dallas greening czar. 

“We’re working on the first cohort of five,” Trimble said. “There will be 15 to start with of these parks, one in every council district and then a main, bigger one. A lot of it is Dallas Water Utilities land but it’s a really interesting way to approach the number of people who don’t have access to a park, trail, or greenspace. It’s really important to have those in communities. In communities that don’t have green amenities, the health outcomes are far worse than those who do have access to a park within a 10-minute walk.” 

They’re not “dropping Klyde Warren Parks all over Dallas,” but offering a nice walking trail and a bench or playground if that’s what the community wants, Trimble said. 

“This is a revolutionary thing that I think will catch on in cities across the state and maybe the nation to give people access to a greenspace,” he said. 

Dallas is in a parks renaissance with projects sponsored by the likes of The Loop Dallas, Trust for Public Land, Trinity Park Conservancy, and Texas Trees. So if such an effort is underway to create more open space, does that mean housing has to suffer? Trimble, who lives in Lake Highlands, says not at all. 

“I don’t think it has to be parks or housing,” he said. “We need both. It’s pretty clear we need and want both. I think that’s the interesting thing about the Dallas Greening Initiative, for example. Those aren’t really great tracts for housing. Some of them are in floodplains and are tough to build on. Big Cedar, I think, would be fairly expensive to develop. People need and want parks. It helps build community. It’s a piece of the puzzle. You also need grocery stores, retail, and healthcare. If you can solve the parks piece, which I think you can right now with the momentum, I think that’s critically important. I think we should work toward having housing and parks. And healthcare and amenities.” 

And when Dallas does “solve the parks piece,” you can bet Ryan Trimble will be cheering from the sidelines.