(she/her) contributes to understanding non-chemical insect control within specialty crops systems. Her studies combine field research with molecular gut content analysis to study practical insect control applications and arthropod food webs.
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Athey is a researcher passionate about caring for specialty crops by applying non-chemical insect control. By studying molecular gut content and DNA in insects, Athey has been able to further data that indicates potential predators of herbivorous prey. Many of her other studies include the development of land cover to encourage predation of insects that damage specialty crops, integrated pest management for stink bugs, and the promising results of nonconsumptive pathways. Before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois, Athey attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha and became an undergraduate researcher, then moved on to be a senior lab technician for the Invertebrate Ecology Lab and graduate research assistant at the University of Kentucky, where she obtained her M.S. and Ph.D. She was also nominated for the University of Kentucky's Outstanding Staff Award and was the second-prize winner of the Doctor of Philosophy competition at the Ohio Valley Entomological Association.
Affiliations: 
 is an assistant professor in the  in the  (ACES) at the . She is also the principal investigator of  and a Faculty Extension Specialist with .