As she prepares to retire, a new endowed scholarship from Martine Vanryckeghem is ensuring future generations of fluency disorder specialists continue the life-changing conversations she and her late husband Gene Brutten began.

Pegasus Professor Martine Vanryckeghem does not avoid difficult conversations. As a world-renowned researcher on fluency disorders, Vanryckeghem knows the path to progress has to go through the most uncomfortable words. So, she talks openly about her primary research interest — stuttering — everywhere she goes: In clinical settings, in classes at UCF, and on platforms around the world. She recently delivered a keynote address at the International Conference on Stuttering in Rome.

“Stuttering isn’t a bad word,” Vanryckeghem says. “We need to talk about it and reduce the stigma instead of pretending it doesn’t exist. This is a global issue that impacts millions of people.”

The people include Marc Anthony, Joe Biden, Steve Harvey, Bo Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Kendrick Lamar, Shaquille O’Neal, Ed Sheeran, John Stossel and Tiger Woods. The list goes on and on.

“And so many children,” Vanryckeghem says. “They usually suffer alone.”

Vanryckeghem’s research and her clinical therapy start with a simple yet overlooked concept: listening — really listening. Not just to the bumpy words, but to the struggle.

“I call it ‘the view from within,’ ” she says. “Think of stuttering like an iceberg. Only 10% of an iceberg is visible. The other 90% is under the surface. The only way to know what’s going on with someone who stutters is to ask questions and to listen to them talk about their own speech. If we listen, we’ll realize there’s much more to the stutterer than the stuttering.”

As Vanryckeghem prepares to retire in the spring, she wants to leave a path for UCF students to carry forward the crucial research she and her late husband, Gene Brutten, began. So, she’s establishing the Martine Vanryckeghem and Gene Brutten Endowed Scholarship, set up to be funded into perpetuity. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a graduate student in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders who demonstrates a passion to contribute to the needs of people who struggle with fluency.

“Because of my background, it would be nice for an international student to be considered for the scholarship,” says Vanryckeghem, referring to the fact she moved to the U.S. from Belgium to pursue her master’s and doctoral degrees. Mostly, however, she came across the ocean to begin a partnership in marriage and in research with Gene.

When asked what goes through her mind when she hears “the Martine Vanryckeghem and Gene Brutten Endowed Scholarship” spoken out loud, the expert on fluency is at a loss for words. She’d rather allow their unlikely story to tell us everything we need to know.

Gene and Martine did not meet as curious colleagues or as mentor and protege. They met as a traveler and a tour guide. Gene, a professor at Southern Illinois University, was already regarded as a leading researcher on stuttering. He’d written a seminal book, The Modification of Stuttering, and was coming to Martine’s hometown of Ghent to lead a workshop on the subject.

“I was hired to show him around the city,” says Vanryckeghem, who worked fulltime in a clinical practice with children who had developmental delays.

Privately, she felt intimidated at the prospect of meeting Brutten. But when the author/professor/researcher arrived, he introduced himself simply as “Gene.”

“He immediately took the edge off,” Vanryckeghem says. “We had the best time going to castles, cathedrals, and dinners. I remember walking into a pub for a glass of wine and seeing how easily Gene spoke with people he’d never met. It left an impression.”

For the next several years, the two of them exchanged letters and cards. Gene would include articles, which piqued Vanryckeghem’s interest in the complexities of stuttering. In 1989, she moved to the U.S. and married Gene. She also joined him in his research, which took off.

“Our work has benefited a lot of people because we inspired each other,” she says. “We never discussed fluency disorders when we were on vacation, but other than that we talked about it all the time.”

Talking about it became the heart of their message.

“Parents feel uncomfortable talking about stuttering because they love their children so much,” Vanryckeghem says. “They’re often told to tell them, ‘Slow down and take a deep breath,’ but these suggestions don’t address the root issues. The child knows he or she is stuttering. It’s OK to ask, ‘What just happened there?’ We need to encourage conversations so kids don’t feel like they have to hide from them.”

With this in mind, she and Gene created a Communication Attitude Test for Preschoolers and Kindergartners (KiddyCAT) so clients as young as preschoolers can express the potential negative thoughts they have about their own speech. Fluency disorder specialists then use the feedback to come up with personal strategies to help the child. It’s still the only test of its kind worldwide.

The two of them also developed the Behavior Assessment Battery (BAB) to discover the words or situations that cause anxiety and/or speech disruption for each client. They often heard adults admit they never applied for certain jobs, never dated, never attended parties and never talked on the phone. Small steps changed their lives. For example, to help clients overcome anxiety on the phone, they would converse with them face to face while holding phones to their ears without turning them on. Next, they’d talk with the phones on. Then they’d carry on conversations from different rooms, and eventually the client would call Best Buy and ask for the price of a laptop. Other BAB subtests investigate behaviors someone might use to avoid stuttering and explore the way a person who stutters might think about his or her speech and communication”.

At last count, the BAB has been translated, culturally adapted, and researched in 33 countries.

The international influence of Vanryckeghem’s research is one reason colleagues at UCF nominated her for the prestigious Pegasus Professor honor, which included a monetary gift. She’s using the financial award to help seed the scholarship.

“The end goal is to improve the quality of life for people with fluency disorders,” she says. “I’ve seen what happens when we have open conversations.”

Vanryckeghem often receives phone calls from grateful parents of children she’s worked with, and from adults whose lives have been changed. Recently, she heard from a former UCF student she assessed and treated ten years ago.

“Do you remember me?” he asked.

“Yes, I do,” Vanryckeghem said.

“My career is going well and I’m up for a possible promotion,” the former student said. “But it involves more presentations in front of people. Can I come for therapy?”

“Of course. Come talk with me.”

This is something that won’t change for Vanryckeghem in retirement. She’ll make herself available. She’ll ask questions. She’ll listen and discover a view from within. And she’ll continue to set an example for the next generation of fluency disorder specialists to give people the lives they’ve always wanted.