Alison Behrman

Associate Professor

"NYU is incredibly good for fostering interdisciplinary research, which is great because there are so many bright, talented people here."

“We rely on the voice more and more,” says Alison Behrman, “because society is increasingly communication-based.” She is referring to jobs that require excellent voice skills, like technical support or telephone sales operators, but she is also referring to the digital communication that pervades many people’s lives. “Cell phones, video conferencing – these require a decent, clear voice. And all kinds of things are becoming voice activated, from software to customer service to cars even! But people take their voice for granted – until they have a problem.”

Behrman became interested in the voice as an undergraduate linguistics major who was also dabbling in acting. “That’s when I started to think about how the voice is produced and why some people have problems with vocal production.”

After receiving her PhD from Columbia University in Speech Pathology, she taught the subject at Hunter College. She then built voice centers at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary so that she and her colleagues could treat patients who have problems with their voice due to disease or age, or to extra stress on their voice – like teachers, singers, and politicians. These centers also gave Behrman the chance to research better ways to diagnose and treat voice disorders.

Behrman came to NYU so that she could teach as well as conduct research. Her current project, funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, looks at different voice therapies to determine which are the most effective. Her findings so far show that many patients don’t always adhere to the treatments prescribed. “Looking at ‘patient adherence’ in terms of speech pathology is a new idea, so I’m working with colleagues in the Department of Applied Psychology who are further along in understanding patient adherence because of their research into addiction and their work with HIV patients. Their knowledge informs my work.”

Behrman also hopes to collaborate with NYU’s Center for Neuroscience to investigate whether people with voice disorders have different brains than those who do not. “NYU is incredibly good for fostering interdisciplinary research,” says Behrman, “which is great because there are so many bright, talented people here.”

Another benefit of interdisciplinary research, says Behrman, is that it keeps her fresh as a teacher. “It generates data I use in my teaching, but it also extends my knowledge base, which is crucial. As a teacher you need to keep exploring and asking yourself tough questions. That’s exciting. And the more you can get excited by your own research, the more you can communicate that excitement to your students.”

Alison Behrman's complete faculty bio.