Steve Graham is a Regents and the Warner Professor at Arizona State University. He was previously a Research Professor at the Learning Science Institute at the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane as well as a faculty member at Vanderbilt University, University of Maryland, Purdue University, and Auburn University. At the start of his career, his research focused on writing and writing instruction for students with learning disabilities. This included the testing of the Self-regulated Strategy Development model created by his wife Karen Harris. His work in writing with students with special needs expanded over the years to include students with ADHD, deafness, speech and language challenges, and behavior and emotional difficulties. He has received multiple awards for this research, including: Career Research Award (International Council for Exceptional Children), the Kauffman-Hallahan Distinguished Researcher Award (Division of Research), Jeannette Fleischner Career Leadership Award (Division of Learning Disabilities), Samual A. Kirk Award (Division of Learning Disabilities), Distinguished Researcher Award from the Special Education SIG (American Education Research Association), and J. Lee Weiderhot Lecture Award (Council of Learning Disabilities).

Starting in the 1990s, Steve initiated a program of research with grade 1 to 12 students that examined how writing operates, factors that contribute its development, effective practices for teaching it, and how writing instruction is enacted in schools. This included over 20 meta-analyses as well as policy papers aimed at improving writing instruction. Initially, this work was conducted in the U.S., but became increasingly international, involving research collaborations in Australia, Belgium, Chile, China, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Turkey.