Tomás Herrera-Mishler
President and CEO
Tomás Herrera-Mishler was named the president and CEO of Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates in August 2020.
He most recently served as the first CEO of the Balboa Park Conservancy in San Diego. At the conservancy, he partnered with the City of San Diego in sustaining, enhancing, and envisioning one of the world’s most unique public landscapes, home to the renowned San Diego Zoo, 17 museums and 20 public gardens. Of particular note is the successful fundraising, programmatic planning, design and construction documentation for the restoration of the park’s iconic botanical building.
During his long tenure as CEO and president of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, one of the nation’s top public/private park partnerships, Herrera-Mishler helped to secure almost $30 million for capital improvement projects toward the implementation of the park system’s visionary master plan. He oversaw partnerships to provide green industry work experiences for disadvantaged individuals and recent immigrants, building a staff of 38-42 percent minority backgrounds. The parks are now considered one of the city’s chief recreational, environmental and aesthetic assets, and are maintained at best-in-class levels. Herrera-Mishler has also worked as the executive director of the Awbury Arboretum in Philadelphia, Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, N.C., and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Boston. He began his career in Florida as a registered landscape architect at the noted firm of Wallace Roberts Todd in Coral Gables, where he worked on the master plans for the Ringling Museum and the Civic Center in Sarasota. Herrera-Mishler has designed projects across the United States, the Caribbean, his native country, Mexico, and Mallorca, Spain. One of his most notable projects is the master plan for the National Conservation Center in Costa Rica.
Herrera-Mishler served as co-chair of the American Society of Landscape Architects Parks and Recreation Professional Practice Group, and on the boards of the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens and the National Association of Olmsted Parks. He belongs to the World Urban Parks Organization and the City Parks Alliance. He is a member of the prestigious Lambda Alpha International, a global land economic society. He is a founding board member of the Western New York Environmental Alliance. Herrera-Mishler has received many awards and recognitions throughout his career, and was named Preservation Hero 2013 by the Library of American Historic Landscapes. He is most proud of his 2020 Bob Marley Peace Award given in recognition of his efforts to promote equity, diversity and inclusion throughout his career.
He holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture and regional planning with a specialization in urban design from the University of Michigan.
