Donald Bear is director of the E. L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy where since 1986 he has worked with children who struggle to learn to read and write, directly through assessments and tutoring programs in the center and through Reading Buddies tutoring programs.

Donald is a professor in the Department of Educational Specialties in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has been a third and fourth grade classroom teacher. Donald has been involved in a number of grants and innovative professional development programs. Assessments that he has developed are widely used in statewide literacy programs. He conducts workshops and consults with school districts to develop their programs. 

Recent studies and writings examine the synchrony of literacy development, word study with English-language learners, upper level word knowledge, and the literacy learning of preschoolers.  He is a co-author of several books, including Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction.