LEADERSHIP CIRCLE DINNER

with John C. Austin


Date: Thursday, March 20, 2025

Pre-fixe dinner w/ brief Q&A: 8:00 - 10:00 PM

Location: S2S Sugar 2 Salt

1371 Gray Drive, Suite 300, Traverse City

You are invited to join our speaker and fellow Leadership Circle members for dinner after the public IAF event at the Dennos Museum Center Milliken Auditorium.



RSVP below and pay by credit card (preferred).



RSVP below and pay by check at dinner.

Please make checks payable to: NMC Foundation

Memo line: IAF Dinner


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NEW! Underwrite a student's dinner ticket

We're eager to invite NMC students to join us for Leadership Circle dinners. Here's your chance to provide an enriching experience for our students (to be invited individually by IAF) and also foster the multi-generational spirit of IAF. If you'd like to purchase an additional ticket for a student diner, add the word "Student" in the name fields during purchase. As always, contact us with any questions.

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    Appetizers


    Chef toasts

    An array of chef selected flavors on house toasted bread. S2S proteins, fresh and preserved vegetables and fruits, Michigan cheeses, fresh herbs and shoots.


    Hushpuppies

    Cornmeal hushpuppies with roasted tomato feta cheese dip, salsa verde, hollandaise, and remoulade.


    Salad


    Apple and arugula salad, candied almonds, fresh cheese, cornbread croutons, honey rosemary vinaigrette.


    Entree, duel plated


    Chicken 

    Breast roulade of charred red pepper, spinach and fresh mozzarella with quinoa barley pilaf.


    Beef 

    Slow roasted beef brisket with sweet potato corn hash, with red wine pan jus.


    Dessert


    Gala apple tart, with salted vanilla bean creme anglaise and maple nut and seed granola


About the Speaker


John Austin is a Senior Fellow with the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College (EI), leading EI’s work

promoting ideas and network-building to spread economic opportunity and strengthen democracies

across the globe. He also serves as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution where

for over twenty years he has led efforts to support economic transformation in the American Midwest

and in the industrial heartlands of Western democracies. Mr. Austin is also an Affiliated Faculty with the

University of Michigan Marsal School of Education. Previously he served 16 years as a state-wide elected

official on the Michigan State Board of Education, including as the Board’s President for six years. Austin

received his Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a

Bachelors from Swarthmore College in Economics and Political Science, with High Honors and Phi Beta

Kappa.


About S2S Sugar 2 Salt


Stephanie Lee Wiitala is well known in her beloved Northern Michigan hometown as a pastry chef, visionary, hospitality creator, and leader in her role as a restaurant and catering company co-owner with her husband Jonathan Dayton. Together they own S2S Sugar 2 Salt restaurant and catering company in Traverse City Michigan.


Stephanie is also a 2011 culinary arts graduate of the NMC's Great Lakes Culinary Institute and she is extremely passionate about food and the Northern Michigan community she has lived in her entire life. Currently her entrepreneurial spirit has helped her to develop and create numerous memorable dining experiences for her guests. She is dedicated to highlighting and supporting her local community, and taking an honest approach to sustainability in a strong reliance on using local and seasonal ingredients and products in all that S2S creates.