[5][6][7] Baer studied for a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in Sociology and focused on family policy.

[7] The final part of his training overlapped with his work in television, and he completed his degree by undertaking electives at UCLA and returning to Harvard during breaks in production.

[7] Baer graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed his internship in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

[5] Baer has written extensively on adolescent health issues for Scholastic Magazine, covering such topics as teen pregnancy, AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, and nutrition.

[8] Baer began his work in television by writing and directing an ABC Afterschool Special entitled "Private Affairs".

[5] The program dealt with sexually transmitted diseases, and was selected by The Association of Women in Film and Television as the Best Children's Drama of the Year.

[5] In January of 1988, Baer would appear as a contestant on episode #182 of Classic Concentration with Alex Trebek[9] where he mentions writing and selling a script for "a TV show for kids."

Baer was hired by writer and producer John Wells to write for drama series China Beach.

[5] During this time, Baer prepared a film script treatment for Paramount called The Lost Mariner, based on a story from the book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, but the project was not produced.

Baer remained a regular writer and contributed scripts for the episodes "Hell and High Water" and "The Match".

Baer was personally nominated for a second Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his work on the episode "Whose Appy Now?".

[10] Baer has written the pilot episode of two unproduced television series; The Edge for CBS and Outreach for the WB Network.

[11] In 2015, he co-wrote along Marc Cherry and Dan Truly the pilot episode of the comedy crime series Cheerleader Death Squad.

[14] A documentary film co-produced by Baer and Christine O'Malley and directed by Patrick Creadon, If You Build It, shows a year in the life of an innovative school in Bertie County, North Carolina.