I am Professor of Accounting at Northumbria University. I am also a Chartered Accountant and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). I have held numerous leadership roles in Universities. Previously I was Dean of the Faculty of Business, Law and Politics and Director of the Business School at the University of Hull. I also held the Northern Society Chair in Accounting & Finance at Newcastle University, UK, where I was Accounting & Finance Subject Group Head before becoming Deputy Director of the Business School. I was a Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), where I was Lead Fellow of the Services research cohort. I have had several grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) addressing gender, responsible management and the sustainable development goals. I maintain close links with the ICAEW and was previously a member of the ICAEW’s Sustainability Committee. I was co-facilitator of the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) Gender Equality Working Group for 8 years.

My research is on two inter-related themes around accounting and social responsibility:

Firstly, I am interested in issues of gender and diversity in relation to the professions, particularly accounting. This strand of research addresses identity and its relationship with gender; the body and embodiment within organisations; the juxtaposition of professional and personal identities; and the conduct of the professions and professional services firms. Published work addresses the interaction of motherhood, career, feminist theory, and accounting.

A second strand of research is on social responsibility, which links to my interests in social and environmental accounting; sustainability and responsibility; and issues of governance and accountability. I am currently working on linking these two areas through work on gender equality and sustainability.

I am also interested in reflexive research methodologies, including narrative, autoethnography, oral history and ethnography. I have experimented with autoethnography and published numerous articles and book chapters in this genre.