Lydia Heilferty is a PhD student in the department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at Rutgers University. She attended the University of Delaware and received her BS in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation in 2022. Her undergraduate research included an undergraduate thesis on the abundance and distribution of New Jersey’s bat species. Her current research interest is shorebird ecology, including the population dynamics of shorebirds and the potential application of eDNA to better understand shorebird ecology.