Which distinguished alumni will travel the farthest to Houston’s Hotel ZaZa for the Luv Ya Blue gala? No contest. Patrick Buzzard, Class of 1988, will fly in from Moscow where he works for NASA as the NASA Russia Representative.

           Buzzard serves as a Diplomat on the US Ambassadors Management Team in Moscow Russia. He represents the Agency and the NASA Administrator and provides liaison and policy guidance for the US Interagency and the Russian Government regarding the international cooperation on space related activities with Russia. This is the best exemplified through the cooperation and operations on the International Space Station (ISS).
           He also supports the public diplomacy efforts of the US Government, the US Embassy Moscow and for NASA by giving  presentations, interviews and holding meetings with various members of the Russian government, Russian media and Russian universities and high schools.
           After graduating in 1988 from Friendswood High School, Buzzard graduated from University of Houston in May 1992 with a double major in History and Anthropology and six months later, a BA in psychology. He served in the Marine Corps from August 1992 through July 1996. He distinguished himself as the Company Honor Man, number one graduate of 361 Marines and many other awards.
           He received his Masters from Texas A&M in Business Administration in 1998.He accepted a position by NASA in the Moscow business Office where he distinguished himself as the Liaison officer at the embassy for the next seven years. In this position he met and worked with President Bush, NASA administrators and other people in government.
           He returned to the States, Washington  DC, working there until transferring to JSC in Houston in February 2005. He worked with Education and Outreach traveling to many schools, conferences and then to Scotland by their invitation to speak at a school there, to help educate and encourage young people about the Space Program.
           In March 2009, he and his wife, Christine Murphy Buzzard from Chicago were transferred back to Moscow where he currently serves at the head of the NASA Business office in the American Embassy.
           Before moving back to Russia in March 2009, Buzzard served in Houston at Johnson Space Center as the International Space Station Program Strategic Outreach Education and Partnerships lead. In that role, over a three-year period, Buzzard gave more than 200 NASA and ISS presentations and speeches to approximately 15,000 people, mostly students and educators.
           Buzzard was honored to have been selected as the Johnson Space Center 2008 Speaker of the Year.
           He is married to Christine Murphy Buzzard whom he met in Moscow. They celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary in March and have a three year old daughter Hailey Elise Buzzard, born in Texas.