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Taking flight: �� Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management degree readied Lacy Fowler for a role at NASA

Jamie Brauckmuller — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:04:42 +0000

Taking flight: �� Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management degree readied Lacy Fowler for a role at NASA

For Lacy Fowler, rocket launches never get old. Even from her position three miles away from the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center, every liftoff remains a thrill.

“I still find them really exciting,” said Fowler, a Lakeland native and guest experience lead for NASA. “It depends on the size of the rocket, but they can get pretty loud. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is going to launch on a Falcon Heavy, which is the one with three boosters, so it’s going to be a bit louder. Then sometimes the boosters come back and land, and you get the big sonic boom, which is always startling when it goes off. But people get so excited.”

Fowler’s path to NASA began with UF’s online bachelor’s degree in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management, which she completed in the spring of 2026. While earning her degree, she interned in NASA’s Office of Communications, a balance made possible by the flexibility of the online program. Today, she puts her education to use at Kennedy Space Center, organizing events and hosting employees, families and guests at America’s preeminent spaceport.

“Specifically, the event management courses I took have translated a lot,” Fowler said. “One of the biggest things that’s helped me is knowing to plan for inconsistencies or contingencies that might happen. We learned in my courses to always have a backup plan, and at times that has really saved me.”

Finding a balance

The Artemis II mission in April of 2026 was NASA’s most anticipated launch in decades, as it marked the first time humans had orbited the moon since the Apollo era. Fowler was in charge of logistics for accommodating guests for the launch, and over five days she estimates she interacted with 8,000 people—gathering names, sending out emails with details, handing out badges, and directing guests to the buses that would take them to the launch observation point.

“It was a huge deal for a lot of people,” Fowler said. “Just knowing that we were taking that step, going back to the moon, was a big deal. After handling check-in at our airport in Titusville, I had to drive to one of the viewing locations, which usually takes about 30 minutes. But because of the traffic, it took two and a half hours to get there. But I still made it before the launch.”

UF Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management graduate Lacy Fowler with her daughter Cora at an Artemis II rollout viewing event for NASA employees.

Fowler once envisioned a very different career. She earned an associate’s degree in Biology from Hillsborough Community College, but struggles in required math classes prevented her from pursuing it any further. Married to a musician, she’s long attended concerts and award ceremonies, “and some of them are well-run, and some of them are not,” she said. “I remember thinking one time, ‘Man, I could do much better than this.’ I help my husband with his business, so I thought maybe we could open a little music venue or start a concert series or something.”

A career in event management beckoned. With three kids, though, an online program was Fowler’s only option, which led her to UF. The flexibility baked into the online Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management program became even more crucial when she secured her internship in NASA’s Office of Communications through the federal Pathways program. Most interns take time off from school to work at the space agency, a luxury Fowler didn’t have.

“I was asked if I could work full-time and take classes part-time, and not take any break. I was able to do that because of the online program, so I started working in August of 2023 and then worked straight through until graduation,” Fowler said. “It was really a great balance, because it allowed me time to work and take classes, and I didn’t feel overwhelmed. Being able to do everything on my own time, being able to work ahead if I could, and having time to turn things in when I needed to really worked out well.”

30 events and counting

UF Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management graduate Lacy Fowler at Kennedy Space Center’s Rocket Garden, the morning before she began checking in guests for the Artemis II launch.

One of the first events Fowler worked on at NASA was Kennedy’s “Family Day,” when roughly 20,000 family members of Kennedy Space Center employees visited the facility. She also managed Kennedy’s “Take a Student to Work Day” event, which gives employees’ elementary though college-aged children an opportunity to shadow their parents. Another event she coordinated was a Delta Air Lines event for Women in Aviation Day—which brought an airplane full of girls ages 11-16, along with mothers and chaperones, to the Shuttle Landing Facility. Attendees toured the facility and took part in Q&A sessions with a panel of women working at NASA.

Fowler, who has since transitioned to full-time, has worked on over 30 events at Kennedy Space Center, eight of them as lead planner. She has joined NASA at a time of renewed public interest and support for the space agency, and her UF online bachelor’s degree in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management helped make it possible.

“I really enjoyed all the professors I had and all the courses I took,” Fowler said. “Some of the general business courses I took required more study time, but that laid a foundation for the other courses that I took, and made them easier to understand. I was able to focus more on the creative aspect of hosting an event—some of the things we did included creating our own hotel, or hosting an event as a project with a group. Being creative was a lot easier because I had that foundation.”

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