Jim Plaxco made first contact with the space activist community in the mid-80’s when he became a member of the National Space Institute, the predecessor of the National Space Society.  In 1988 he joined and became an active member of the Chicago Space Frontier L5 and Chicago Society for Space Studies chapters of the National Space Society.  He subsequently went on to serve as President of the Northern Illinois Space Advocacy and is currently a Director of the Chicago Society for Space Studies.

Mr. Plaxco was elected to the NSS Board of Directors as the Region 6 Director in 2002 and was subsequently elected to serve as the Vice President of Chapter Affairs for the NSS.

Mr. Plaxco’s other previous non-profit experiences include having served on the Board of Advisors for the Harper College Center for Meteorite and Planetary Studies; being the Program Director for the Henize Science Learning Center; serving first as Membership Director and Editor of PSF News and later as Webmaster and Vice President of the Planetary Studies Foundation.

Mr. Plaxco currently serves as a NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador, providing educational presentations to schools, museums, and various organizations and special interest groups.  He is also the creator and webmaster of Astrodigital (www.astrodigital.org), an educational web site that also serves as the home for the Chicago area NSS chapters.

Mr. Plaxco received a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University.  While at Northern Illinois University, Mr. Plaxco founded and served as President of the NIU College Republicans.

Professionally, Mr. Plaxco is employed as a Database Administrative Specialist.  He lives in Schaumburg IL with his wife and two sons.