Article

Face to watch

July/Aug 2002
Article
Face to watch
July/Aug 2002

As those who suffer from food allergies know, a peanut buttersandwich can kill. So can eggs,wheat and even milk. That's an issue that takes -'94 to classrooms, laboratories andeven Capitol Hill as the administrative director of the Food Allergy Initiative (FAI), a foundationestablished in 1997 by relatives ofchildren with life-threatening foodallergies. The foundation uses its$2 million-plus budget to promoteawareness and fund medical research. Rappoport joined FAI aftertalking with one of its directors,who has a child with allergies. "Shetold me she doesn't rest until herdaughter is asleep at night," saysRappoport. "It didn't make sense tome that we couldn't better theirlives in the time before we find acure." University of California atLos Angeles immunologist Andrew Saxon '68 chairs the group's medical advisory board and helps evaluate potential research. The goal:A cure for all food allergies by2010. Now Rappoport is workingwith Sen. Ted Kennedy on theFood Allergen Consumer Protection Act, which would improve ingredient labels by listing foodallergens in easy-to-understandlanguage. For details on the group,go to www.foodallergyinitiative.org.