Steph completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (Hons) at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Her honours project, undertaken with the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, investigated the phylogeography of the New Zealand endemic green skink (Oligosoma lineoocellatum) and spotted skink (O. chloronoton). As a research assistant in Dr Peter Ritchie’s laboratory, Steph also investigated the phylogeography of the New Zealand speckled skink (O. infrapunctatum).
Since coming to Museum Victoria, as a research associate and for PhD research, Steph has been involved in a number of projects examining the phylogenetics, biogeography and molecular systematics of several agamid lizard and skink species.