Dr Mel Taylor is a Chartered Psychologist and a member of the Division of Occupational Psychology (UK). She is an Honorary Associate Professor at Macquarie University and partner in Enduring Advantage Consulting. Her applied research centres on human behaviour and decision making in the context of risk, with occupational/public safety outcomes. These risks are often low probability, high consequence emergency events such as pandemics, terrorism, emergency animal diseases, and natural hazard emergencies. Her research includes consideration of risk communication and messaging to target groups and focusses on providing insights to help inform policy and practice. In recent years Mel’s main research projects have been in two areas; animal emergency management and flood risk communication. Mel is currently leading a program of work funded by Natural Hazards Research Australia to investigate community experiences of flooding, initially in New South Wales and Queensland in relation to flooding in January-July 2022, but now extended to Tasmania in relation to flooding there in October 2022.