Hi there, I’m Karen Dudek-Brannan!

I’m a Professional Development Specialist, SLP, and founder/owner/operate of Dr. Karen, LLC, a company focused on empowering therapists and educators to design interventions that support language, literacy, and executive functioning. In my current role, I develop engaging professional development and products that help school teams work together to get better results.

On the De Facto Leaders Podcast, I share up-to-date evidence-based practices, my own experience, and guest interviews designed to help pediatric therapists, educators, and aspiring school leaders design services that support social, emotional, and academic growth and set kids up for success in adulthood. Whether you want to learn effective strategies for your therapy session or classroom, be an influential leader on your team, or find creative ways to use your skills to advance in your career, I’ve got you covered. You can listen to the De Facto Leaders podcast on most popular podcast directories, and can scroll through past episodes on this page here.

Latest Episodes

Building the Literacy Skills Needed for Technology and Life (featuring Tom Parton)

“We don’t need to work on decoding because students have access to assistive technology and accommodations.”“We don’t work on word-decoding in high school.”“Working on...

Engaging Families and the Role of Tech in Addressing Book Deserts (featuring Cassandra Williams)

In this episode, I reflect on my conversation with my colleague Cassandra Williams as we discuss book and resource deserts, as well as how to engage with school commun...

Navigating Language Therapy as the Only SLP in the District

Ever feel overwhelmed being the only SLP in your district without a network of fellow clinicians for support? You're not alone; many in similar situations face these c...

Case Study: Shouldn’t I have language therapy figured out by now?

Ever feel like you should have language therapy figured out by now, but you're still struggling? Even experienced clinicians can feel that way.In this episode, I’m sha...

Balancing Language, Academic Content Areas, and Executive Functioning (featuring Jill Fahy)

What if choosing between language and executive functioning for your students wasn't an "either/or" decision? And how can we effectively balance academic content with ...

More Episodes »