Dana Plautz ’82 Ambassador of the Arts at Intel

Creative contribution. Dana Plautz has wrapped her artistic soul around that concept to craft a richly textured career.

Thriving as Intel’s manager of research communication and chair of the art and entertainment research council committee, Plautz describes her role as that of company ambassador.

“Our research communication team infuses new knowledge into the corporation,” says Plautz. “We bring in university professors, authors, and industry leaders so that Intel can keep up with trends in society and in research and development. Our guests’ first impressions of Intel are created through interactions with us.”

Her team coordinates 110 internal seminars a year, two a week on average. Most recently, Alzheimer’s experts from around the globe presented a seminar on age-related health problems. They examined how technology can help family members and health-care providers keep patients in their homes for as long as possible.

“As the population continues to grow and people live longer, Alzheimer’s is becoming more prevalent,” says Plautz. “It’s a huge issue.”

In addition, this former communication major scours the arts community for fresh ideas and concepts, doling out research dollars to the most promising.

“When collaboration occurs, new ideas emerge,” says Plautz. “Artists approach problems in very different ways than people in the scientific community.”

Aside from her 10-year stint at Intel, Plautz is serving her second term as chair of the Oregon State Film and Video Office. She and other volunteer board members advise the office’s director and staff on innovative ways to attract filmmakers to Oregon. The Hunted, an action/crime thriller starring Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones, was the office’s most recent coup, infusing $25 million into state coffers.

Plautz developed a penchant for film and video production early in her career. Straight out of college, she worked as a script runner for Embassy Communications, a Norman Lear television company. As the home-video industry hit its stride, she devised a moneymaking strategy to sell, rather than rent, her company’s videos and, at age 25, garnered a promotion to company director. 

“I hadn’t encountered much rejection at Lewis & Clark, and it never occurred to me to doubt myself,” she says.

That same confidence propelled her into action after the September 11 terrorist attacks. She and David Decker ’81 collaborated on the documentary Artists Response to 9.11.Since its debut at Lewis & Clark in March, the film has aired in classrooms and at film festivals. It won the 2002 Gold Aurora Film and Video competition for a documentary dealing with art and cultural issues and played at the New York Independent Film and Video Festival in the East Village and in Hollywood.

“I am so proud that we captured the pathos of that moment in history,” says Plautz.

—by Pattie Pace