Many people who are involved in K-12 education want to be “student-centered”, but what if that’s not the most effective place for leaders to put their efforts? I wanted to discuss this topic with Dr. Chris Jones, who shares why school leaders can create a bigger impact by supporting teachers and those working directly with students. Dr. Chris Jones has been an educator in Massachusetts for 22 years. His experience in the classroom ranged from 8th - 11th grade working in an urban setting. A porti...
Jul 05, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 119
Evidence-based practices and high-quality curriculum are important, but they aren’t the ONLY things school leaders need to think about. We can’t effectively serve students unless we understand their community, which means we have to think beyond the classroom or therapy room . That’s why I invited Edward Gordon, II, former principal and CEO of Gordon Leadership Academy, LLC to the De Facto Leaders podcast to talk about school turnaround and coaching within the education system. Edward W. Gordon,...
Jun 28, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 118
There’s a lot of talk about risk factors in education; but not as much focus on protective factors . That’s why I invited Dr. Mike Gaskell to episode 118 of De Facto Leaders to talk about the work he’s done helping students and staff build resilience in a way that’s feasible for busy educators. Dr. Michael Gaskell is an author, speaker and school principal in East Brunswick, NJ., following experience as a special educator and assistant principal in Paramus, NJ. He models the pursuit of lifelong ...
Jun 21, 2023•54 min•Ep. 117
When the pandemic hit, many clinicians had to unexpectedly transition to online therapy, which raised a lot of concerns about treatment quality. Can you really provide high-quality services in an online format? Does it require the same skill sets as in-person therapy? Are there times when teletherapy provides functionality that doesn’t exist in-person? As the world has embraced telehealth as a viable option to increase access to services, these are all questions that come up for those of us deli...
Jun 14, 2023•53 min•Ep. 116
Those of us working in K-12 education interact with students and staff who have experienced trauma whether we’re aware of the specific events or not. A lot of people have heard the term “trauma-informed” care , but not everyone knows what it means or how to do it in practice. That’s why I wanted to invite Rachel Archambault to episode 115 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to talk about what trauma-informed care is and share how educators and therapists can put it into practice . Rachel Archambault...
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 115
A lot of professional development is still delivered in the lecture or workshop format , even though there’s evidence that this model doesn’t have a significant impact on student outcomes. So what do people working in K-12 education need to support students and have fulfilling careers? I started asking myself that question when I was working in the schools, and I stumbled upon the coaching industry . This led me to discover design-thinking , a process for solving problems and innovating ; someth...
May 31, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 114
Supporting language and decoding are important pieces of helping kids grow up to be successful readers. But making it happen is way more complex than that. What happens when a child in 5th grade is reading at a first grade reading level? What if there are other barriers BESIDES just reading getting in the way; such as scheduling constraints, classroom management issues, or access to mentoring? What if kids don’t have access to books outside of school, and schools don’t have the funding to provid...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 113
What do you do if your school administrator doesn’t fully understand your role and your expertise ? What if you have the information and knowledge they need to drive important decisions for your school? How can you get them to listen to your input ? If you’re a therapist, educator , or aspiring school leader , these questions may have popped into your head from time to time. If that’s the case, it might feel like your boss (or maybe even your boss’s boss) has all the power . But what if that was...
May 17, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 112
“Behavior problems” are an external sign of what’s going on internally. In order to support kids who are being referred for behavioral concerns, we need to address these internal skills proactively. That’s why I invited consultant and educator Lisa Navarra to episode 111 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to talk about self-regulation. Lisa M. Navarra, M.S. in Special Education, SDA, award-winning educator and published author of children’s books, music, and teacher resources provides professional ...
May 10, 2023•55 min•Ep. 111
Do autistic people experience empathy? Does masking cause trauma? How do we help neurodivergent kids form relationships in a way that’s accepting of their differences? These are questions that I get from clinicians on a regular basis that I’ve also wondered about myself. That’s why when I created The School of Clinical Leadership, I made sure to include research and strategies to help guide clinicians through answering these questions. In episode 110 of the De Facto Leaders podcast, I’m sharing ...
May 03, 2023•48 min•Ep. 110
If you’re a therapist or educator working in the schools, there’s a high probability that the administrator who does your employee evaluation isn’t a subject-matter expert in your discipline. If they are, you’re certainly in the minority. This is because it’s impossible to find a s chool administrator who’s held every single job in the school system. On top of that, employee evaluations are incredibly time-consuming , making it difficult for school leaders to provide the mentorship and coaching ...
Apr 26, 2023•58 min•Ep. 109
Doing a quality evaluation when you’re assessing things like language can be a challenge because there isn’t one “magic bullet” test that gives us what we need. What is even more challenging is when you get a referral to evaluate a client that speaks two or more languages ; especially when they’re languages you don’t speak. Unfortunately, monolingual clinicians get referrals for multilingual evaluations all the time. That’s why I invited Meg Morgan, Speech-Language Pathologist and Clinical Assis...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 108
What’s evidence-based and neurodiversity-affirming shouldn’t be in opposition. Effective interventions that build resilience and help kids build healthy relationships should be “affirming” by definition. Yet many clinicians remain confused about how to apply this to practice; especially when it comes to things like “social skills” or “pragmatic language” . One of the most common complaints I hear across disciplines when it comes to social skills support is that students don’t generalize skills ....
Apr 12, 2023•32 min•Ep. 107
I was honored to have Sharon Fuller, founder of The Attachment Place, LLC as a guest for episode 106 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast. Sharon began her journey with developmental trauma disorder (DTD), also known as reactive attachment disorder (RAD), when she and her husband first adopted in 2005. She is a mom to nine children, six biological and three who were added to their family through adoption. When confronting the effects of the trauma their adopted children had endured she realized the...
Apr 05, 2023•56 min•Ep. 106
In 2022, a study was published in JAMA Network Open with a compelling title: “Video gaming may be associated with better cognitive performance in children.” You may read the article here: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/video-gaming-may-be-associated-better-cognitive-performance-children This resulted in a number of social media influencers spreading the word about the “benefits” of playing video games. For up to 3 hours a day nonetheless. **After I published this podcast episode, ...
Mar 29, 2023•25 min•Ep. 105
Many people in education and healthcare know that lobbying and advocacy needs to happen; but many people don’t know whose responsibility it is or how to do it. That’s why I invited Michael Campbell, published author, blogger, and licensed bilingual speech-language pathologist to the show to dive into this topic. Michael has spent time as a union member on his collective bargaining committee, and he shared a ton of useful knowledge on the process. If you’re an SLP or other related service provide...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 104
We’ve all sat through some boring professional development before; but there’s nothing boring about the training you’ll get from Dr. MC, the guest on episode 103 of the De Facto Leaders podcast. Many people in “helping professions” like education and healthcare focus more on taking care of others instead of taking care of themselves ; which is why I wanted to have Dr. MC on the show to talk about how school leaders can make self-care a part of K-12 culture. But not just for the students; for the...
Mar 15, 2023•57 min•Ep. 103
There are a lot of approaches to teaching kids to read; but not all of them are effective. This is especially important for kids with disabilities who need explicit instruction. That’s why in episode 102, I had special education consultant and host of the Science of Special Education podcast, Brett Stevens, on the show to talk about the Science of Reading. Brett is a special education consultant focused on literacy and legal compliance. She has spent over 20 years within the field of special edu...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 102
Strong executive functioning skills can help kids to be resilient , adaptable , and independent . These characteristics are going to be essential for supporting mental health and success going forward. EVERYONE who interacts with school-age kids on a daily basis has the chance to support executive functioning, and not addressing this skill is a huge missed opportunity. Many treatment teams do not adequately address executive functioning, which is why so many clinicians notice their clients strug...
Mar 01, 2023•32 min•Ep. 101
On episode 100 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Gastrid Harrigan has been an educator for over 19 years as a classroom teacher, Assistant Principal, and currently as Principal in Broward County, Florida . In addition, Dr. Harrigan is a Professor of Education at Broward College and Colorado State University Global. He’s also the host of The School Leaders Podcast , a show focused on helping current and aspiring principals and school leaders navigate their ...
Feb 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 100
On episode 99 of the “ De Facto Leaders” podcast, I had the opportunity to interview Allison Fors, who is a pediatric SLP-A, mom to a child with a cleft palate, and a Teachers Pay Teachers seller with tons of great resources for early language. Allison is an SLP-A in California. She has primarily worked with diagnoses of autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays in schools at the K-12 level, as well as private practice. Her interests include early language, as well as understanding and inc...
Feb 18, 2023•58 min•Ep. 99
On episode 98 of the “ De Facto Leaders” podcast, I had the opportunity to interview children’s book author and veteran SLP, Valerie Doherty. Valerie has over 30 years of experience as an SLP, and in 2011 her passion for language and literacy inspired her to start writing children’s books. Readers need physical books they can actually hold in their hands, which is why many authors want to go back to the basics and give young readers good quality books they can interact with. If you’ve ever aspir...
Feb 08, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 98
On episode 97 of the “ De Facto Leaders” podcast, I had the opportunity to interview SLP and Related Services Director, Marva Mount. Marva is a nationally recognized speaker on issues regarding public school speech and language services. She is a published chapter author, and has been awarded the Hall of Fame Award for outstanding contributions to the field of speech pathology by her state organization. In addition, Marva is a distinguished fellow in the National Academies of Practice, and has s...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 97
I’m SO excited to share episode 96 of the “ De Facto Leaders” podcast, where I sat down with Bilingual School Psychologist, Briana Wagner. Briana started out as a teacher, but soon made a career transition to school psychologist. She’s also bilingual and knows a ton about how to support culturally and linguistically diverse students. In early 2022, she started the @educationallypsyched Instagram account where she shares information about the school psychologist’s role, as well as a number of top...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 96
In episode 95 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast I sat down with Hallie Sherman, a school speech-language pathologist, blogger, and business owner from SpeechTimeFun (https://speechtimefun.com/). When Hallie started working as a school SLP, she had a difficult time finding materials for middle school and high school students. After a lot of trial and error, she managed to create her own tools to serve her students. In 2012, she decided to start a blog and start sharing some of these resources wit...
Jan 18, 2023•42 min•Ep. 95
In episode 94 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast I sat down with Clay Hadden (a.k.a. Mister Clay), a private practice SLP and YouTuber from South Carolina. We had a fantastic conversation about how to come up with creative ways to serve your caseload and play a part in advocacy issues relating to health care and education. At the beginning of the pandemic, Clay found that he wasn’t able to serve a large portion of his caseload due to the lockdown. But on top of that, he found that many of his cli...
Jan 11, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 94
I’m continually learning and developing my understanding of language and executive functioning , as well as how to help teams work together to better support these skills. That’s why I recently decided to audit some of the content I have floating around the internet. In truth, I have a lot out there because I like to get content into the hands of clinicians who need it as quickly as possible, which is why I do a lot of impromptu videos and run a lean operation. And since I’m human I had (and lik...
Jan 04, 2023•44 min•Ep. 93
Therapist burnout is prevalent among SLPs, social workers, psychologists , and other professionals supporting K-12 kids. That’s why I was so excited to have special guest Angie Merced on the De Facto Leaders podcast for episode 92. Angie is a Certified Life Coach and School-Based SLP. She lives with her husband and two little girls in the Rochester, NY area. Her passion is to rescue SLPs who are feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and trapped in a career they're "supposed" to love. She shows her cl...
Dec 28, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 92
Generalization is one of the most common complaints I hear from school therapists, regardless of the discipline. If you’re a clinician, you know how frustrating it is when a student seems to grasp a skill in your sessions, but doesn’t ever apply it outside your room. In episode 91, I wanted to talk about why this happens. Many therapists are very focused on building their clinical skills and planning therapy sessions. This means a lot of focus on how to support students when they’re in a direct ...
Dec 21, 2022•36 min•Ep. 91
There’s a lot of talk within the therapy world about effective therapy strategies ; but there’s NOT a lot of talk about how to get funding so programs can actually deliver support and resources . That’s why I was so excited to have Merlin Anderson on the De Facto Leaders podcast to talk about what’s known as “ABC runs”. The concept of an ABC run started with 5 friends who wanted to help a local outdoor center with children’s programs to build a new facility. They decided to get together to go fo...
Dec 14, 2022•50 min•Ep. 90
