Academic biography

Dr Karen-Ann Dwyer is a chartered accountant and an assistant professor in accounting in DCU Business School. Karen-Ann primarily teaches financial reporting and auditing to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Karen-Ann was awarded an Advance HE (Higher Education) Senior fellowship in 2025. Karen-Ann is a fellow member of Chartered Accountants Ireland and completed her accountancy training with KPMG. She has 11 years experience with KPMG (working in KPMG Dublin, KPMG Sydney and KPMG Luxembourg) and was an Associate Director in KPMG up to September 2013. Karen-Ann has also worked with Chartered Accountants Ireland in an exam capacity. 

Karen-Ann completed her PhD Auditor planning judgements: Audit materiality thresholds and auditor risk assessments in expanded audit reports at the University College Dublin in 2020, under the joint supervision of Prof Niamh Brennan and Dr Collette Kirwan. Her current research interests are in auditor planning judgements, audit quality and disclosures in annual reports. Karen-Ann regularly presents her research at both national and international conferences. Karen-Ann publishes in leading peer-reviewed journals, including European Accounting Review, Journal of Applied Accounting Research and Australian Accounting Review.