Certified Event Planner with Food Allergies
Tracy Stuckrath, CSEP, CMM, CHC, founder and chief connecting officer of Thrive! Meetings & Events is a event planner and consultant who is one of just 200 people in the world to hold a designation as a Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP), among several other industry certifications.
She is also one of the 12 million people in the United States suffering from food allergies.
Around age 30, she began experiencing lethargy, severe mood swings, depression, and sinus and breathing problems, symptoms that impacted her quality of life. After four years visiting doctors who could find nothing wrong with her, Tracy finally found an ENT who located the source of her illness: a food allergy to yeast.
She went on a yeast-free diet (yeast, sugar, vinegar, diary, white flour, peanuts, mushrooms), lost 25 pounds and felt better than she had in years. But she soon found that managing her diet was nearly impossible when traveling for the events she planned.
Indeed, processed foods are all too often the norm at airports, hotels, restaurants and event facilities and Tracy began to see that very few know how to address the needs of people with dietary restrictions, whether it is a personal choice, a medical condition or a food allergy.
That’s when in January 2009, after reading an article in Natural Health, Tracy entered the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) to learn more about her allergy and how to eat (and feel) better with food.
What she came away with was:
- The knowledge that she was not alone in her needs
- A passion to “Make the World Healthier One Event at a Time”
- Desire to educate the hospitality industry on how to care for guests with dietary needs.
Combining her more than 20 years experience, food allergies and nutritional training, Tracy founded Thrive! Meetings & Events in 2010. The fast-growing company reflects Tracy’s expertise in producing events with her passion for food and personal commitment to the environment.
