Steph Buller graduated top of her class from the Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction, University College London with a Masters in Disaster Risk Reduction, and was awarded the IRDR Master's Prize 2016.

She specialised in disaster risk reduction and community resilience to environmental hazards through the lens of sustainable development and community-led planning. Her Masters’ project was titled Neighbourhood Planning Policy as a tool for Building Community Resilience. Steph focused on how the process of neighbourhood planning and plan policies could contribute to the development of the four capitals; human, social, economic and environmental; identified as the mechanisms by which community resilience is fostered. The research further explored the ways in which the planning process and plan policies can contribute to flood risk reduction in the UK.

Steph’s primary interest is to see the UK policy and practice landscape transition towards risk informed sustainable development. This will be achieved through a whole system, whole cycle, whole of society approach, informed by scientific evidence, good practice and global policy such as the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction.