Dr. Don Bartlette is a full time public speaker and is, by training, a social worker, counselor, educator, consultant, and an advocate for minority persons, victims of child abuse, survivors of alcohol addiction, troubled youth and persons with disabilities.

A Native American activist, he is married to a former special education teacher and they are the parents of seven daughters and one son.

Macaroni at Midnight is an autobiographical profile of the speaker's social, psychological, and educational experiences as a Chippewa Indian child growing up with emotional, speech, and physical disabilities in an environment of poverty, family violence, juvenile delinquency, child abuse, racism and alcoholism. It relates how one person in his community helped him to overcome childhood disadvantages.