While working as a lobbyist for the New York City Board of Education from 1986-1988, Bill Marcus shepherded into law an act that converted the dormant school savings accounts of depression-era school children into a three-quarter million dollar college scholarship program for disadvantaged youth. As a program analyst for the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Election Law from 1989 to 1991, he initiated the youth voter education sections of Chapter 90 of the laws of 1991 and regulatory reforms in nursing home balloting. As of 2001 the fund had created more than three-quarters of a million in scholarships, the New York City Board of Education said.

In 1989, as Chairman of the Greater Westchester Human Rights Fund, he negotiated the creation of the office of liaison to the gay and lesbian community by Republican-Conservative Westchester County Executive Andrew P. O’Rourke. He explained why this strategy was important in an article in the New York Times in 1990.
In addition to his work with the Greater Westchester Human Rights Fund, Bill was also president of the SUNY Purchase Alumni Association, an elected member of both the Westchester and Albany County Democratic Committees and a founding member and later executive producer of a weekly news and opinion show on WRPI, in Troy.
He is also a voice-over actor, and a regular contributor to both The Times-Union and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1998, Mr. Marcus graduated from the State University of New York at Albany with a Masters of Arts in social studies education. His 1984 B.A., also from SUNY Albany, is in Political Science. From 1997 to 2002 he taught Economics, Participation in Government, and Writing in the public high schools of New York’s Capital District. In 2003 he earned a certificate in Mandarin Chinese from Fudan University.
He is a former lecturer in the Department of Foreign Language and Literature at Fudan University where he specialized in American Culture and Spoken English.
Today, in addition to his journalism, Mr. Marcus is also a Chinese language education consultant to the Startalk initiative of the National Foreign Language Center which is based at the University of Maryland. He is also an adjunct instructor teaching journalism at Roxbury Community College in Boston.