Bett McDade joined the Academy in 2004. She brings a wealth of experience and perspective gained from providing services to children and families involved in the Child Welfare Services for over 25 years. She began her career as a social worker for Los Angeles County. During that time she worked closely with foster parent organizations, provided development of innovative individual and team approaches for work with children in foster care and for family reunification, and lectured at UCLA on the battered child. Law school graduate in 1986 she joined The Legal Aid Society of San Diego where she provided representation and advocacy services for children, many in foster placement, primarily in education rights and special education services, provided training in special education rights for probation officers, social workers, foster parents, and school administrators. She developed and was Director the San Diego Mediation and Restitution Services Program, for Legal Aid Society, training volunteer mediators and providing victim-offender mediation, parent-child mediation, family group conferencing, community conferencing and peer mediation program development programs that served the entire county of San Diego.

As Adjunct Professor for the San Diego Community College she teaches Effective Parenting for parents of children in the Child Welfare Services system. She is currently the Curriculum Development and Training Specialist for the Public Child Welfare Training Academy where she relishes the opportunity for continual learning from colleagues and trainers. In her free time she is the coordinator for a community collaborative, a gardener, a writer, and a traveler.