My Emotional Support Bot™Our story
It started with a call that never happened.
The story behind Rigby, and why we are building it for college students.
How Rigby started
The idea for Rigby came when my daughter went away to college and experienced panic attacks while navigating roommate issues and adjusting to classes. She didn’t call me because it was 3 a.m., and when I found out, I felt terrible knowing she had been struggling alone.
As both a mother and an educator, I wanted to create an accessible first layer of support for moments like that.
Why college students?
My daughter’s experience made the need personal, but the research shows how widespread it is. The 2024–2025 Healthy Minds Study found:
College is a major transition, and I wanted to help students navigate those everyday pressures before they become overwhelming.
Source: Healthy Minds Network. (2025). The Healthy Minds Study: 2024–2025 data report (opens in a new tab), p. 3.
Dr. Catherine “Katie” Kirby
Founder, My Emotional Support Bot™
Dr. Catherine “Katie” Kirby is an educator, school principal, and founder of My Emotional Support Bot™, the company behind Rigby, an AI-powered platform designed to support college students as they navigate academic stress, relationships, loneliness, and the transition to independence.
With more than 23 years in education, Katie has seen how emotional well-being shapes a student’s ability to learn, connect, and thrive. Her experience spans classroom teaching, educational technology, and school leadership, with a longstanding focus on social-emotional learning and creating supportive school communities.
Katie holds a doctorate in Educational Technology Leadership from New Jersey City University, where her research explored virtual reality and social-emotional learning. She brings that same curiosity to Rigby: how can technology help people feel supported while strengthening their connection to human resources?
Her vision is to make Rigby an accessible first layer of support: a bridge to connection and care that helps students navigate everyday challenges and helps colleges better understand their communities’ needs.
What I’d like students and campuses to know
I bring more than 23 years of experience in education, a doctorate in Educational Technology Leadership, and a mother’s perspective to this work. Rigby is being developed to give students a place to reflect, work through everyday challenges, and connect with additional support when needed. My vision is for Rigby to complement campus services while helping colleges understand student needs through anonymous, aggregate insights, without exposing individual conversations.
Katie Kirby
Be one of the first students on Rigby
We're recruiting college students for our first pilot. Campuses are welcome to get in touch too.