Plante is an Associate Professor and Chair of Psychology at Santa Clara University, a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and a Consulting Associate Professor of Education at Stanford University. He obtained an Sc.B. degree in Psychology with honors from Brown University, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Clinical Psychology with honors from the University of Kansas, and completed a clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical and Health Psychology at Yale University.