Teddy Kider is a 32-year-old attorney who has had a milk allergy his entire life. He was born during the dark ages of food-allergy research and treatment, when, for the average patient, information was scarce and a cure was unthinkable. Times have changed, but much more work needs to be done – we still face a growing public-health crisis, with millions of children who will never outgrow their allergies set to encounter a lifetime of medical, social, professional, and psychological challenges, and society lagging behind in its understanding of their disability. Teddy will share his thoughts about what it has been like to live with a life-threatening allergy for more than three decades and why it’s important for the public-health community to better understand the experiences of food-allergy patients and work to help them.