Kim (Hamilton) Hedrick always wanted to be a veterinarian, but now she says she has the next best job, protecting the environment. She left the warm, Gulf Coast waters of Mobile Bay in 2004 for the warm Atlantic waters of North Carolina’s eastern shore.

“I was hired as a field representative for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Coastal Management,” says Hedrick, a native of Flat Rock, Ind. “This is a state agency that regulates development along 20 of the coastal counties of North Carolina.”

Since May 2007, Hedrick has been one of the department’s compliance and enforcement representatives. Her duties include monitoring of permitted development, performing aerial surveillance flights with Marine Patrol pilots to check development along the shoreline, and issuing notices of violations with restoration requirements for unauthorized development, such as filling in wetlands.