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

Scaffolding, fading prompts, and the importance of parent and teacher coaching (with Rebecca Robbins)

“Scaffolding” has become a buzzword when it comes to helping kids become more independent with academic and functional tasks, but it's only useful if people know what ...

FAQs: Language therapy goals and "observable behaviors" vs "strategy goals".

For episode 196 of De Facto Leaders, I share a Q & A session where I talk through how to write language therapy goals that are both trackable and functional.This is ju...

FAQs: Language evaluations, data, doctoral programs and expanding clinical career options.

For episode 195 of De Facto Leaders, I share a Q & A session where I talk through ways to navigate evaluations; including considering a test's psychometric properties,...

Salary and caseload negotiations and expanding your career opportunities (with Rachel Archambault)

Many therapists feel as though they have limited upward mobility in their careers. Graduate programs understandably focus on direct clinical practice and understanding...

Using Distance Learning to Increase Access and Opportunity (with Seth Fleischauer)

Most people agree that the “online learning” that happened during COVID was a challenge for many students; especially those with disabilities.However, what happened du...

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