For Jeanne Rappoport, a 24-year veteran of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF), an organization that helps people who have alopecia areata, an autoimmune skin disease that causes hair loss often throughout the body, planning meetings is more than a job—it’s become a “family” affair.
Because the disease can greatly affect one’s appearance, the annual conference offers a convivial environment where attendees feel like they always fit in.
“It’s life changing,” she said. “A lot of people say they’re desperate, and at the end of the weekend people are taking their wigs off, exchanging phone numbers—it’s a real comfort zone.”
Rappoport plans the annual conference, which drew 585 people last June in Miami, and five smaller medical meetings. The next annual will be held in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Gainey Ranch.
“We’re pretty much going to take the place over,” she said of the festive atmosphere of the gathering. “It’s pretty much like a reunion. We certainly make it our own no matter what.”
The annual also offers medical talks, panel discussions and breakouts for singles, and many siblings, parents, friends and partners of attendees with alopecia also attend. The last conference had about 150 kids in attendance, according to Rappoport, who has seen some of them literally grow to adulthood during her tenure.
“It’s one of the greatest things I’ve probably experienced, to go to this conference and be a part of it,” she said. “I feel very lucky.”
