Dr Wade is Principal Research Specialist at the Parenting Research Centre in Australia. Dr Wade leads research, evaluation and analysis activities at the Centre, managing a team of research staff engaged in projects focused on evaluating the implementation and impact of initiatives aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable families across Australia and internationally. Dr Wade is also a Research Affiliate with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. Dr Wade has over 16 years of experience conducting social policy research spanning a range of public health priority groups including parents with intellectual disability. She was a founding member of the team that created Healthy Start – the national strategy to support parents with learning difficulty and their children (Federally funded 2005-2014), and was Healthy Start’s national manager from 2008 to 2010. Dr Wade has delivered professional training to over 1000 practitioners, in evidence-informed parenting programs for parents with learning difficulties (in Australia, Sweden, and Japan) and has developed and evaluated innovative resources aimed at these parents. She was the Australian representative for six years on the Board of Management of The Association for Successful Parenting and is a member of the Parenting Special Interest Research Group of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability.
Dr Wade has authored/co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications and presented over 40 papers and invited presentations at national and international conferences. She is an internationally recognized expert on parenting with intellectual disability, with regular requests for her advice, training and representation on steering committees and reference groups as a result of her clinical and research experience with these families.