The Last Lecture

Avery Bendell is a dedicated Biomedical Sciences student, researcher, and mentor with a deep commitment to community service, leadership, and academic excellence. As a senior campus tour guide, Avery welcomes prospective students to the University of Guelph, helping to create a sense of belonging. Beyond leading tours, she trains future tour guides to develop strong communication skills and enhance their understanding of the campus community.  

Academically, Avery is a researcher in the Human Performance Lab where she has authored several manuscripts on exercise physiology and earned a publication for her work in a sustainability case competition.

As a former competitive athlete, Avery is a pre-competitive gymnastics coach where she focuses on creating a safe and empowering environment for young girls in sports. Outside of academics and coaching, Avery plays the trumpet in the Guelph concert band and has mentored seniors in her community learning to play the instrument, fostering meaningful intergenerational connections through the joy of music.  

Avery’s dedication to service extends to her role as a volunteer at the Guelph General Hospital, where she provides emotional and social respite to patients. Here, she has developed a passion for empathetically driven healthcare, inspiring her to apply to medical school and pursue a career in family medicine. 

Dr. Behnke-Cook earned her Ph.D. from McMaster University where she focused on youth risk behaviours, and on how families, schools, and the larger community have an impact on the choices youth make about early school leaving, substance use and misuse, and sexual relationships.

She also completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the Faculty of Medicine at McMaster, Population Health Research Institute, where she studied the impact of poverty on health outcomes for youth and their families.

Her experiences in these academic environments led her to launch her entrepreneurial career, where she determined that she would step into the gap and provide youth with up-to-date, relevant, and factual health information so that they could make informed decisions about their health and well-being. She subsequently authored and implemented peer mentor-led youth risk behavior interventions in several Boards of Education in the Province of Ontario. Those experiences led her to further her support, and through her coaching practice, assist anxious and neurodivergent students entering post-secondary school so that they might enjoy a successful experience, both in and out-side of the classroom.

She continues to provide audiences in the education, sport, and business communities with her signature talks that focus on resiliency, living an authentic life, embracing the now, and recognizing that adversities can actually be opportunities. She believes that seemingly challenging experiences can be transformative, and that they can oftentimes teach us more than our successes do.

Dr. Behnke-Cook believes that we can be stronger than before and often shares her own life’s journeys that include raising four children while attending grad school, owning a food truck for a time, loving her life as a Lecturer here at the University of Guelph in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology where she primarily teaches large first year classes, and kicking cancer’s ass after being diagnosed with breast cancer just over twelve years ago.

Her motto, Today is a NEW Day lies bare her heartfelt belief that every day brings a fresh new beginning, and that embracing it with joy and gratitude enriches one's own life, as well as the lives of those around us.

Dr. Behnke-Cook is a life-long Hamiltonian, currently enjoying life in the downtown core with her husband Gordie and their four children (now all young adults), along with their three dogs Daisy, Stella and Baxter, and one cool cat named Elliott.

Mark Harrison is the founder of the MH3 Collective, a group of ventures whose purpose is to connect people & ideas to create social impact. The Collective includes Humanity, T1, Sidekick, and SponsorshipX. In addition, he co-founded the BTI to support Black entrepreneurs, leaders, and changemakers; and Park Street Education, a charity to remove all barriers to children’s education.

His community involvement includes being Board Chair of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto and a Board Member of several organizations, including the CAMH Foundation, and the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences/The JUNO Awards.

Mark is a recipient of the Black Business and Professional Association's Harry Jerome Award, the Association of Canadian Advertisers’ 2022 Gold Medal Award winner and a 2025 Marketing Hall of Legends nominee.  

Mark is also CBC Metro Morning's business columnist, where you can hear his regular takes on corporate and societal matters.