Coryn Bina, Co-Founder, Co-Board Chair

Coryn Bina grew up in California and moved to Boston to attend Emerson College. While a student, she founded a Belmont youth group affiliated with the National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) that focused on community issues.

After college, Coryn joined her family’s coffee and hospitality business. There she used her financial acumen, vision and management skills to grow the company and expand it into new areas, while regularly using it to support community causes. After marrying Babak Bina and starting a family, she retired from the business and kept volunteering. She spent time with young patients at Shriners Hospital in Boston and served for two years as fundraising chair for The Foundation for Children with AIDS. She and Babak also raised funds for Casa Myrna Vasquez, a Boston shelter for women and children affected by domestic violence, and for many other local nonprofits.

Coryn came to the equestrian world through Babak’s lifelong love of horses. When their eldest son, then four, wanted to ride, no one offered recreational lessons for children that young. Therapeutic riding instructor Terry Snow, who taught children with disabilities, offered him a lesson slot that had opened up. Coryn watched her son and a young girl with autism take turns riding and play together in the arena. It made her ask why siblings and parents weren’t part of these programs. She took a lesson herself, and that one ride changed her life. She set out to combine her lifelong commitment to helping others with her new passion: a place that would bring together people with and without disabilities while also supporting their families.

Coryn and Babak, who were already planning a family foundation, saw this as the ideal way to give back. In 2009, they established BINA Farm Center, whose mission is to bring Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies and a wide range of inclusive programs to as many children and adults as possible. Their two sons have been involved with BINA’s mission since it began. Coryn joined the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (now PATH International) in 2009. From 2009 to July 2017 she served as BINA’s first full-time Executive Director as a volunteer, taking no salary. In January 2018, the Boston Celtics named her an NBA Hero Among Us.

Coryn lives in Boston with her husband and enjoys spending time with their two adult sons, Kamran and Aidin. She also founded a production company, where she tells stories about the social causes she cares about.

Contact: coryn@binafarm.org