Lydia grew up in Eastover, South Carolina and attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics. She earned her dual Bachelor’s degrees in Biological Sciences and Wildlife and Fisheries Biology at Clemson University. She continued her education at West Virginia University, where she earned her Masters of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Resources and a Certificate in Applied Statistics. Her thesis investigated the distribution and abundance of king and clapper rails within Virginia intracoastal waterways using autonomous recording units. Lydia’s interests lie primarily in population and community ecology. Her PhD project will focus on combining telemetry and camera data to monitor the south Florida white-tailed deer population using spatial-capture recapture models. Her work aims to provide recommendations to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on the continual monitoring and viability of the deer herd within the predator-rich ecosystem.