Richard S. Murad was born in Houston but grew up in Fort Bend County. He is a product of Fort Bend ISD K-12 schools, and he served five years in the United States Marine Corps—first as a ground radio repairman in Southern California, and then guarding our nation’s embassies in Oslo, Norway and Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Richard has undergraduate degrees in History and in Russian Studies from the University of Houston; a Master’s Certificate in Advanced International Affairs from Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government & Public Service, and a law degree from the Texas Tech University School of Law. Before transitioning to a career in law, Richard spent almost five years in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan working in support of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s international nuclear non-proliferation and border security programs. If necessary, Richard can still communicate in spoken and written Russian.