Patrick Lee, a former college athlete with both collegiate and professional athletics experience, joined the University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of Athletics on September 8, 2005 and serves as the associate athletic director for external affairs.

In two years with the Alaska Nanooks, the Pocola, Oklahoma native has implemented new marketing and promotional concepts, earning both conference and national awards in the process, and he has increased sponsorship revenues over 45 percent. He has created the Junior Nanooks Club, which had over 95 youth members in its first year, and the Nanook Fund, which is the primary fundraising extension of the athletics department.

Lee was awarded the Central Collegiate Hockey Association's (CCHA) Most Outstanding Marketing Campaign of the Year Awards in both 2006 and 2007. He was recognized with three awards (one silver & two bronze) in 2007 and five awards (one gold, two silver & two bronze) in 2006 by the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) at their national convention. Lee most recently received the UAF Chancellor's Diversity Award in 2007, and also earned membership into Who's Who Among America's Teachers and Educators and the Golden Key International Honour Society.

Lee currently serves as vice president for the J.P. Jones Community Development Center Board of Directors, while also serving on the UAF Vision Task Force committee, UAF Vice Chancellor's Advancement and Community Engagement Advisory Council, Board of Directors for the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation of Fairbanks, Board of Directors for the Fairbanks Golden Heart Rotary Club, Leadership Council for Big Brothers Big Sisters Greater Fairbanks Area, and performs numerous speaking engagements each year within the community and around the country. He is also a member of the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators, Minority Opportunities Athletic Association, Black Coaches Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Mt. Hermit Masonic Lodge #35 and Pi Lambda Theta International Honor Society.

Lee came to Alaska from Tallahassee, Florida, where he owned E&E Consulting and Management Services, serving as the director of team operations for the Jacksonville Wave, an American Basketball Association Team, and serving as project director for vending and concessions services for Florida A&M University (FAMU) Athletics.

Lee previously worked at Florida A&M University in 2003-04 as the executive director of the FAMU Boosters Club, Inc. and in 1999-2000 as the director of sports marketing. He also has served as a sports marketing specialist for Daktronics, and worked as vice president for marketing and sales for Davis Group International. He also has been a co-owner of the Florida Blaze, a semi-professional basketball team, and a corporate marketing intern for the PGA Tour.

While a graduate student at Idaho State University (ISU) in Pocatello, Idaho, Lee interned under ISU athletic director Irv Cross, a former sports anchor for CBS Sports, who encouraged him to pursue a career in athletics administration.

Lee is pursuing a doctorate degree in sport administration (PhD) from Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida, with a 3.52 GPA. He completed a master's degree in physical education/athletic administration and a bachelor's degree in speech communications from Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, along with an associate's degree in secondary education from Carl Albert State College (CASC) in Poteau, Oklahoma.

Lee played junior college basketball from 1992-94 at CASC and was the Vikings' 1994 Player of the Year. He then competed in basketball for the Idaho State University Bengals from 1994-96 and track from 1994-97. He ranks fifth at ISU in three-point field goal percentage and earned All-Big Sky Conference Honors as a high jumper and student-athlete, and has a personal-best leap of 6 feet, 11 inches.

Lee and his daughter, Leilani, live in Fairbanks.