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

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...

Part 3: Five Skills to Create Your Executive Functioning Intervention Framework

Students with executive functioning challenges often intend to complete tasks or meet expectations—but struggle to execute consistently. The reason? They aren’t mental...

Part 2: Five Skills to Create Your Executive Functioning Intervention Framework

I’m often asked if I can create an “executive functioning lesson plan” that a clinician could do within a 20-minute therapy session with a student or group of students...

Part 1: Five Skills to Create Your Executive Functioning Intervention Framework

Executive function is often defined as “having good time management skills”. While this isn’t completely off-base, it’s a vast oversimplification.The REASON people are...

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