2025 Shade Zones Jury

El Salvadorian-born Mia Lehrer, FASLA founded Studio-MLA with a vision to improve quality of life through landscape. She is internationally recognized for progressive landscape design, advocacy for sustainable and people-friendly public places, and catalyzing work for a climate-appropriate future. Mia has led the design and implementation of ambitious civic projects, including the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse, Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan, and the LA County Natural History Museum Nature Gardens. She launched two non-profits to improve urban life and the environment as well as work on initiatives for biodiversity, green schoolyards, the urban forest, addressing homelessness, and climate resilience.  She served as a Commissioner of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power and the United States Commission of Fine Arts under President Barack Obama. In 2024, the Los Angeles Times named Mia an ‘L.A. Influential’; she also led the firm to receive Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies Award of 2023 for Urban Development & Real Estate, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s 2021 National Design Award for Landscape Architecture, the ASLA LaGasse Medal, and the John L. Chase Legacy Award from the Westside Urban Forum.