Patrick Plonski has served since 2003 as Executive Director of Books For Africa, the world’s largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent. Books For Africa has shipped over 64 million books and over eight million digital books and served every African country since 1988 with an annual fiscal impact exceeding $32 million. Books For Africa has been rated in the top three percent of all U.S. charities by Charity Navigator, partnering with organizations such as the United Nations, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps, the U.S. Library of Congress, OPEC, Merck, the African Union, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Oprah’s Angel Network. Plonski has traveled to 48 countries in his career. He has served as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences teaching coursework on world development issues.
Previously, Plonski has served as Executive Director of the Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership Council at the University of Minnesota (1998-2003), and Committee Administrator of the Minnesota House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture (1987-1998).
He holds a PhD in International Education (2009) from the University of Minnesota, a Master’s Degree in History (1994) from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in History from St. John’s University (1985). Plonski has also studied at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business Non-Profit Leadership Program (2021), the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education Program in Istanbul, Turkey (2015), the University of Salzburg, Austria (1983-84) and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland (1988-89). He has presented at the Summit of the Book at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt (2015), and the World Literacy Summit at Oxford University (2012, 2018, 2023, 2025). He was awarded a Cargill Fellowship for European Union agricultural research in Belgium and Hungary (2002), and a University of Minnesota Human Rights Fellowship for agricultural research in Italy and Poland (2000). He has served on Minnesota Trade Office agricultural delegations to New Zealand (1998) and Denmark (1997).
Plonski is frequent commentator in the media on topics pertaining to development, education, and literacy in Africa.
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