Stef is a medical anthropologist with experience in public health and ethnographic research. She works with First Nations peoples to undertake both applied and critical projects. Her research interests include caregiving in contexts of chronic disease and disability; the intersection of biomedicine and other Western therapeutic approaches with Indigenous practices of health and kinship through healthcare and disability services and social housing; and the development and evaluation of models of care. In her PhD dissertation, Stef explored the social, economic and political relations of care that arise through end stage kidney disease in Yolŋu society. In her current role, Stef is addressing the appropriateness and cultural safety of current models of care for young First Nations people with type 2 diabetes.

She is also an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University.