[{"jcr:title":"Insper Professor receives award in the USA for mentorship of women and work with voice","cq:tags_0":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/internacional"},{"richText":"Recognition promoted by The Voice Foundation acknowledges Mara Behlau's role in fostering female leadership and valuing communication as a strategic tool","authorDate":"16/07/2025 19h15","author":"Isabel Gomes","madeBy":"Por","tag":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper","title":"Insper Professor receives award in the USA for mentorship of women and work with voice","variant":"imagecolor"},{"jcr:title":"laranja - turquesa - vermelho"},{"themeName":"laranja - turquesa - vermelho"},{"containerType":"containerTwo"},{"jcr:title":"Grid Container Section","layout":"responsiveGrid"},{"text":"The professor of Communication for Business in the graduate programs at Insper, Mara Behlau, has over 40 years of experience in an essential and often invisible topic: voice. In June, during the Annual Symposium of the The Voice Foundation, in the United States, her career was recognized with the Pioneer Award, an unprecedented honor celebrating women leaders and inspiring figures in the field of voice.   Speech therapist and researcher, Mara was honored for her contribution to research, teaching, and especially mentoring women in an area still marked by gender inequality.   The Pioneer Award was created by the Women in Science Committee of The Voice Foundation, launched last year to increase visibility and opportunities for women in vocal science. “In this first year of the award, 20 women from different parts of the world were nominated, and participants of the conference voted. I was completely surprised,” recalls Mara about the moment she learned she had been chosen.   Founded in 1969, The Voice Foundation is the leading international organization dedicated to voice research, education, and care. The entity promotes integration among researchers, clinicians, and voice professionals, in addition to publishing the Journal of Voice, considered one of the most important scientific journals in the field.   Mara has a long history with the foundation. “I’ve been attending The Voice Foundation since 1983, when I went to the United States for a sandwich master’s program at Michigan State University. Until then, no Brazilian had ever participated in the foundation,” she recalls.   Voice as a tool   Graduated in Speech Therapy from the Escola Paulista de Medicina at Unifesp, Mara holds a master's and doctoral degree with part of the research conducted in the United States, as well as postdoctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco. For the past 15 years, she has taught in Insper’s graduate programs, combining her technical expertise with the world of interpersonal relations and business communication.   “It’s the quality of our communication that sets us apart from competitors,” she says. “The most important vehicle of our communication is the voice. It can attract or repel. If it’s tense, too high-pitched, or too soft, it doesn’t engage. Professional communication is a special, trained type of interaction. And communication is an essential skill because it can promote you—or it can get you fired.”   In this technical work with voice, Mara dedicates special attention to women's space in the labor market, supporting trajectories facing structural obstacles. “I have a center of studies on voice here in Brazil. (Through it), we aim to boost more women because they have fewer opportunities,” she says.   She also highlights the communication challenges women still face, especially in how they present their ideas. “We need to communicate more directly, without apologizing for showing up or correcting a mistake. When we say, ‘I’m just going to speak for a little bit,’ we’re already disqualifying everything that comes next,” she warns.   Asked about the importance of international recognition, Mara summarizes with naturalness and purpose: “I was caught by surprise, although I have dedicated my life to it. When I stop to think, I say: 'Why did I do all this?' I did it because it needed to be done, simply.”"}]