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

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 ...

Finding a Place for AI in Therapy and Product Development (with Natalie Yona)

In this episode of De Facto Leaders, I’m joined by speech-language therapist Natalie Yona from Cognishine to explore one of the most nuanced conversations happening in...

Part 5: Five Skills to Create Your Executive Functioning Intervention Framework

One of my favorite “hooks” or titles to use when I’m talking about executive functioning centers around the idea that executive functioning intervention is about “more...

Part 4: Five Skills to Create Your Executive Functioning Intervention Framework

Every time I give a session on executive functioning, I have clinicians and teachers ask me the same thing:“How can I motivate students who don’t seem to care or don’t...

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