Teacher, writer, and human rights activist Jennifer Prosser Wade was born in India where she spent the first decade of her life. Relocating to New Brunswick, she attended the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, graduating with a BA in 1958. While undertaking graduate studies at University College in London, England, she was introduced to Amnesty International, an organization dedicated to defending and promoting human rights.

Wade has worked with human rights and volunteer organizations in Canada and the United States as well as abroad. While living in Georgia, she taught writing at Emory University and became involved in the civil rights movement, working with the Southern Regional Council in attempts to reduce racial barriers through education and research. She has also worked with Amnesty in Vancouver, on village projects in Pakistan, and for family resettlement programmes in New York City. As well, she has served on the board of directors for the Elizabeth Fry Society, at both the national and provincial levels. In the early 1980s, she moved to Halifax where she taught university courses and headed the local chapter of Amnesty.

While in Halifax, Wade became interested in the case of Bruce Curtis, a native of Middleton, Nova Scotia. In 1983 Curtis, then age 19, was convicted by a New Jersey court of aggravated manslaughter in the 1982 shooting death of Rosemary Podgis, the mother of his schoolmate Scott Franz. Beginning in 1984, Wade spearheaded the successful press campaign to have Curtis returned to Canada to serve out his sentence. In May 1988 Curtis was transferred to a Canadian prison, and, the following year, he was placed on day parole, having served almost seven years of a 20-year term.

Wade's activism and volunteerism have won her international recognition. In 1994 the United Nations Association and the B. C. Human Rights Coalition presented her with the Renate Shearer Award, and two years later UNB awarded her an honourary doctor of letters. In 1997 she is residing in Vancouver.