Dan Plunkett lived his formative years in Terrebonne and Iberia parishes in South Louisiana. Growing up, he had a strong interest in herpetology and spent a lot of his time in the swamps, marshes and bayous.

For much of his early adulthood, he traveled the South working construction and laboring on oil rigs offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. He now makes his living as an advisor to Chairmen and CEOs of some of the world’s largest corporations. He and his wife, Ellen, divide their time between the U.S. and Belize, where they have founded The Doris Wilderness Foundation, Inc., LLC, which preserves thousands of acres of old-growth rainforest. They have three grown children: Evan, Ryan, and Dillon.

Plunkett holds a BFA from East Tennessee State University, an MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.