Rate My Professor Karen Handley

Karen Handley is a Senior Lecturer in the Newcastle Business School within the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She holds a PhD in Accounting from Macquarie University, a Master of Business Administration with Gold Medal from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Information Processing from Rhodes University in South Africa. Throughout her career, Handley has occupied senior leadership positions, including Director - International for the Newcastle Business School from August 2023 to December 2023, Visiting Professor and Visiting Researcher at the University of Urbino from April 2023 to December 2023, Assistant Dean Transnational Education in the College of Human and Social Futures from January 2021 to December 2022, and Associate Professor and Assistant Dean International - Strategy and Programs in the Faculty of Business and Law from March 2020 to December 2020. She has taught financial accounting, finance, and management at the University of Newcastle, Macquarie University, and the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Prior to academia, Handley owned a small business and served as an information systems Project Manager.

Handley's research specializations encompass accounting theory and standards (40%), corporate governance (30%), and small business organisation and management (30%), with interests in governance, standard setting, and management of Small and Medium-sized Entities, as well as intellectual capital, social impact, and work-life balance. She has authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and reports, including the book 'A Humane Reckoning From Accounting to Accountability at Macquarie, 1964-2014' (2014); journal articles such as 'SME Corporate Governance: A literature review of informal mechanisms for governance' (Meditari Accountancy Research, 2022), 'Accountability and social impact evaluation in a small NPO: Stakeholder ambiguity, networks and trust' (Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2025), 'Does Female Participation in Strategic Decision-Making Roles Matter for Corporate Social Responsibility Performance?' (Accounting and Finance, 2022), and 'Understanding participation in accounting standard-setting: the case of AASB ED 192 Revised Differential Reporting Framework' (Accounting and Finance, 2020); and chapters like 'A New way of working: Flexibility and work-life balance in the Accounting Profession in Australia' (2017). Handley has secured research grants totaling over $330,000 in the last ten years, including from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in 2023, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand in 2022, and the NSW State Insurance Regulatory Authority in 2020. She received the Faculty of Business and Law Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020 and has been a Member of the Academic Advisory Panel of the Australian Accounting Standards Board since 2019.