Hal Plotkin

Hal Plotkin
Hal Plotkin at the Institute for Open Leadership in 2015
Senior Policy Advisor Office of the Under Secretary of Education
In office July 2009 – August 2014
Personal details
Born	(1957-09-14) September 14, 1957 (age 59) New York City, New York
Spouse(s)	Loren A. Stein
Residence	Palo Alto, California

Hal W. Plotkin (born September 14, 1957) is an American journalist and activist. He is currently the senior open policy fellow at Creative Commons.

From 2009 to 2014, Plotkin served as the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education, which has responsibility for all federal U.S. higher education policies and programs.

In 2003, Plotkin initiated the Foothill-De Anza Community College District's Policy on Public Domain Learning Materials which are now more commonly known as Open Educational Resources.

Plotkin attended Palo Alto High School, where he was an editor for the student newspaper, The Campanile. Family circumstances led him to drop out of high school during his junior year in order to work full-time in whatever jobs he could find, including gas station bathroom cleaner and pizza maker. Plotkin managed to graduate with his high school class in 1975 after administrators gave him course credit for some of his employment activities.

He attended college part-time over the next 10 years while working a variety of jobs, including as a Comprehensive Employment and Training Act worker serving as an aide to then-Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon, Sr. In 1979, Plotkin began working as a researcher, writer, editor and broadcaster. His earliest journalism jobs included serving as news and public affairs director for KPEN 97.7 FM and writing for the San Jose Metro alternative newspaper. Plotkin eventually earned his associate degree in history from Foothill College in 1985 and his bachelor's degree in behavioral sciences, with distinction, at San Jose State University in 1986. He also ghostwrote two books and served as an editorial consultant on several others during this period.

Plotkin worked as a Silicon Valley-based journalist and commentator, with his work often focused on technology, business, public policy, education and science. He was a founding editor of American Public Media's Marketplace program and a former columnist for CNBC.com and SFGate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle. He joined CNBC.com the following year as full-time Silicon Valley correspondent for the online operations of the financial news television network. He worked for CNBC.com from the day the site went online in July 1999 until Microsoft Corp. took over editorial operations in July 2001.