Dr. Sarah Leadley
Sarah is a Registered Psychologist and Behaviour Analyst (BCBA). For over 16 years, she has provided behavioural services in homes and schools for children and young people with and without disabilities. She has practiced in New Zealand, and Canada. Her PhD research (2014-2017) focused on home-based behavioural interventions for a group of tamariki who were dependent on tube feeding. Parents & family/whānau were involved in every step of this research, as well as multiple health professionals.
Sarah is a member of the Clinical Network for Paediatric Tube Feeding. She is a Senior Lecturer/Senior Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, within the School of Psychology (Behaviour Analysis programme). Her role involves training students who are aiming to become psychologists and conducting feeding-related research in the community (see the research tab above). Research during 2023-2024 is further supported by funding from the Health Research Council.
Sarah is also a mum to two young children who keep her super busy!
University of Auckland Staff Profile
Rae Zhang - Research Assistant with the Ready to Eat Study
Rae completed her Masters research in 2021, with the Ready to Eat study. She has been working as a behaviour therapist for children with disabilities since 2016. Her work involves providing interventions to promote various skills and to improve meaningful behaviours. Rae also has experience in providing parent training and communicating with other professionals. Rae has recently started her PhD, with the aim to set up parent-to-parent supports for families of tamariki with tube dependency.
Outside of work, Rae loves enjoying the beauty of nature and painting. She also loves to teach her dog to communicate with the use of buttons, and build DIY toys for her newly adopted kittens.
