Up Next – September 22, 2026
Speaker – Allison Pinches
Topic – Behind the Influence: Lessons from 10 Years in Podcasting
Allison is a producer and researcher with the Apostrophe Podcast Company and works on a variety of shows including: Under the Influence: With Terry O’Reilly, We Regret to Inform You: The Rejection Podcast, and Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe. Allison’s lifelong passion for stories has been part of her work both now in podcasting and previously in the non-profit sector. Originally from Vancouver, Allison now resides in Guelph and – though it’s not an ocean – she can often be found happily walking by the river.
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October 27, 2026
Speaker – Dr. Kathleen Rodenburg
Topic – The Anatomy of Bad Decisions in Ethical Dilemma Space
Why do seemingly good people, find themselves in the center or as direct contributors to unethical workplace scandals? Partial explanations for pervasive work-place scandals. Dr. Kathleen Rodenburg is the Associate Dean Academic and a University Teaching Leadership Fellow in Workplace Ethics at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics. She holds a PhD in economics and experimental economics, an MBA on sustainability and a MA in economics with emphasis on governance. She has several years of business and industry experience holding senior management positions in the areas of strategy, marketing, sales, supply chain management and finance prior to her academic career. Business has a tremendous influence on society and can provide significant contributions toward the achievement of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Kathleen is focused on teaching practices ‘that develop leaders for a sustainable future’, service commitments that help the Lang School achieve their vision, ‘Business as a
Force for Good’ and research that supports these aims.
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November 24, 2026
Speaker – Dominica MacPherson – Guelph Wellington Poverty Elimination Collaborative (to be confirmed)
Topic – From Insight to Impact – Advancing Solutions to Poverty, Housing
Affordability and Homelessness
Dominica McPherson is the Director of the Guelph & Wellington Poverty Elimination
Collaborative, where she brings together key players from across sectors and lived
experiences to advance system and policy change to address the root causes of
poverty. With nearly two decades of experience in community development, policy
advocacy, and systems change, she is committed to community-driven, evidence-
informed approaches that center those most impacted.
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January 26, 2027
Speaker – Pauline Curtis
Topic – Are We having Fun?
Pauline’s presentation will be more of a participation event than a speech. Having fun, whether it engages our brain or our muscles or both, is essential to healthy living. She will challenge us to sharpen our focus on fun a priority is our lives. Pauline Curtis has spent her life in communications. She held various positions in Human Relations, Training and Development and as Director of Communications for the Cooperators Group of Companies. Her volunteer commitment included serving in leadership positions with Zonta and the Guelph Community Foundation. She was awarded the Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary International. She has directed Cabaret at the Arboretum for the past 8 years. Creativity, learning and fun are her watchwords.
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February 23, 2027
Speaker – Jeremy Gehl – Head Gardener, Langdon Hall, Cambridge
Topic – Seasons at Langdon Hall
Langdon Hall was built by Eugene Langdon Wilks, a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor. Part of the ambience of Langdon Hall lies in its natural focus on gardens. Jeremy will take us through his priorities each season. The gardens provide a vegetable and herb supply to Langdon Hall’s kitchen. He will tell us about his close collaboration with
the chef, so that the products the kitchen needs are available at just the right time in just the right quantity.
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March 23, 2027
Speaker – Dr. Cathryn Spence – Professor of History, University of Guelph
Topic – From Merchants to Servants: A Consideration of Women in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Scotland
In late mediaeval and early modern Scottish towns, women occupied a variety of economic positions. They were merchants, moneylenders, and servants and they forged and maintained relationships across social classes. Using Edinburgh as a case study, we will investigate the economic, social, and religious connections that affected
their lives, including where they lived, which parts of the city they went to, their daily tasks, and their impact of their community and city.
Cathryn Spence is Associate Professor in History and a member of the Centre for Scottish Studies at the University of Guelph. She is the author of Women, Credit, and Debt in Early Modern Scotland (Manchester, 2016) among others and is co-editor for the journal Scottish Archives. Her research interests include gender and urban history, and her current project, funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant, explores concepts of neighbourliness in early modern Edinburgh.
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April 27, 2027
Speaker – Dr. Dawn Bowdish – Professor of Medicine, McMaster University
Topic – The Aging Immune System and Infection
Dr Dawn Bowdish is a Professor at McMaster University, and the Executive Director of the Firestone Institute of Respiratory Health. Her lab studies how age-associated inflammation alters monocyte and macrophage development and function and how this ultimately increases susceptibility to respiratory infections while decreasing the effectiveness to vaccines for pneumonia and COVID-19. Her team also studies how the aging immune system and the microbiome interact and how this can contribute to healthy or unhealthy aging. She runs the Preclinical Studies in Aging Laboratory (www.psal.ca) and is on the Board of Directors of the Lung Health Foundation where she advocates to increase research.
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May 25, 2027
Speaker – Judith Nasby
Topic – The Making of a Museum and the 100-year history of the Art Gallery of Guelph and the Sculpture Park
Judith Nasby, founding director and curator of the Art Gallery of Guelph (formerly the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre) was named Curator Emerita on her retirement. Judith oversaw the development of an 8,000-piece collection and a sculpture park of 41 artworks. She has curated over 100 exhibitions and written 150 publications. Her history/memoir The Making of a Museum was nominated for a Governor General’s Award, and in 2024 she received the McMaster University Distinguished Alumni Award for the Arts.Judith has lectured and toured exhibitions on four continents and was a visiting curator at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing and at the University of Delaware. She received the King Charles 111 Coronation Medal for her contribution to the Arts in Canada.