Sarah Wayland

Wayland worked as a social worker from 1998-2010 in the fields of child protection and victims of crime.^[3] In 2005, she received a Churchill Fellowship to study "the international approach to counselling for families of missing persons focusing on the concept of unresolved loss".^[6]

She obtained her PhD from the University of New England in 2015, studying hope and ambiguous loss, and was awarded the Chancellors Medal for Doctoral Research.^[3][7]

In 2019, she collaborated with the Australian Federal Police National Missing Persons Coordination Centre to publish "Acknowledging the Empty Space", a resource for those supporting people whose loved one is missing.^[8]

She is a regular contributor to The Conversation, ABC News and Radio, and SBS.^{[1][2][9][10][11]}