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

Making professional development and programming goals meaningful (with John Mihalyo)

Having someone observe your therapy room or classroom can feel awkward; whether it’s your boss doing your evaluation, or whether it’s a special service provider who’s ...

Failure to launch, screen addiction, and preparing kids for life after high school (with Michael McLeod)

Many young adults enter their post-high school years without the executive functioning skills needed to thrive. This is often because the people supporting them undere...

FAQs: What if my district is still promoting three-cueing?

For episode 206 of De Facto Leaders, I share a Q & A session where I discuss Reading Recovery and cueing strategies for decoding, and I make some recommendations for a...

Using the essential 5 to build vocabulary and syntax in secondary school (with Amy Baugh)

Today I’m sharing an interview I did with Amy Baugh, a member of Language Therapy Advance Foundations. Amy Baugh is an experienced SLP, a life-long learner and truly e...

Using digital resources to improve team collaboration and combat therapist burnout (with Dr. Karen Rose)

Finding the right amount of therapy materials is a struggle for many clinicians. It’s hard to find the balance between having enough options, without having so many ch...

More Episodes »