Katy Peplin is the founder of Thrive PhD, a community and coaching platform created to support PhD researchers through the emotional, mental, and personal challenges of doctoral study. She is a coach and former academic who draws on lived experience of the pressures, isolation, and identity strain common in PhD programs. Katy created Thrive PhD after recognizing that traditional academic environments often neglect wellbeing while rewarding overwork and self-sacrifice. Her work focuses on helping researchers build resilience, self-trust, and sustainable ways of working without abandoning ambition or intellectual rigor. Through Thrive PhD, she supports doctoral students and early-career researchers in developing healthier relationships with work, success, and themselves. Her approach treats wellbeing as foundational to both personal fulfillment and long-term academic contribution.