More CPAs are retiring than are joining the field. What’s going on? Forensic accountant Kelly Richmond Pope explains.

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Imagine a world without accountants – it's not as distant as you think. Over 300,000 accountants have left the field in the past two years, and fewer students are pursuing accounting majors or the CPA exam.

Forensic accountant Kelly Richmond Pope explores this alarming decline in interest in accounting. Pope believes the difficulty and cost of getting an accounting degree have drawn prospective students away, along with shifting career interests driven by social media, ESG, cybersecurity, and IT.

However, some changes could attract new learners and, thus, save the field. Pope shares a few ideas for how to revitalize a very necessary profession.

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About Kelly Richmond Pope

Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope is the Dr. Barry Jay Epstein Endowed Professor of Accounting at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Pope is a nationally recognized expert in risk, forensic accounting, and white-collar crime research, and an award-winning educator, researcher, author, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. She’s the author of Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion Dollar Fraud Industry (Harvard Business Review Press, March 2023). Pope teaches managerial and forensic accounting both at the undergraduate and graduate level.