Leading for Impact with Huddle Up

What do you do when your district needs 28 speech-language pathologists and you only have 14?Dr. Kara Anderson, Director of Special Programs at St. Joseph School District in Missouri, didn't wait for the problem to solve itself. In this episode, she joins host Keith Kostrzewski to share how she evaluated her options, started small with virtual speech therapy at the secondary level, and scaled a model that now serves students across the district through Huddle Up.In this conversation, you'll hear about building stakeholder trust when introducing virtual related services, practical approaches to staffing shortages in special education, winning over skeptical parents (and the student story that changed everything), and protecting your in-person team from burnout while expanding services.Whether you lead special education at the district level or you're exploring virtual service delivery for the first time, this one's for you.Leading for Impact is brought to you by Huddle Up Care.

As school and district leaders enter 2026 facing tightening budgets and rising expectations, the challenge is clear: how do you build systems that last when resources are uncertain? We sit down with Tyra Mariani — a nationally respected education leader whose career spans local, national, and philanthropic systems — to explore what sustainable impact really looks like in this moment.

Leading for Impact is a podcast about what it really takes to build systems that last. Each episode features real conversations with the leaders, practitioners, and big thinkers reshaping schools, communities, and the organizations that support them.Created for anyone committed to meaningful change, Leading for Impact explores the long game of improvement through three core questions: What must change? What must endure? And what should give us hope?Through thoughtful interviews, practical insights, and stories from the field, the show uncovers the mindsets, habits, and commitments required to create transformation that lasts.Subscribe today and join us as we learn what it truly means to lead for impact.