National Reading Czar to Leave Public Sector for Teacher Ed. Venture

G. Reid Lyon, the influential chief of the branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that sponsors studies on reading and a key adviser on the federal Reading First initiative, will step down July 1 to take a job at Dallas-based Best Associates.

As the company’s senior vice president of research and evaluation, Mr. Lyon, 55, will work to set up a teacher education initiative.

“I’ve been in government service since 1991, and everything I wanted to do was far enough along so that I feel comfortable leaving,” Mr. Lyon said in...