 from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1972.After an internship in medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Plakun worked as a rural primary care practitioner in Vermont before completing a psychiatric residency also at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and a Fellowship and Advanced Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Studies at the Austen Riggs Center.He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and serves on the APA Board of Trustees representing New England and Eastern Canada.