Signing up for the National Pipeline Advisory Group’s Pipeline Pledge is more than adding your name to a list. It’s committing to do what you can to raise awareness of the benefits of accounting careers. It’s also a way to find resources before connecting with students or new accountants. 

Once you’ve signed the Pledge, then what? Many people have shared insights into what the Pledge means to them and what actions they plan to take in 2025. We’ve received some truly fascinating responses. 

As our pledge community grows, we will periodically highlight the stories individuals share with us about their volunteerism, awareness building, and what accounting careers have meant to them.  

To join the community of Pledge takers, go to the NPAG website, sign up, and share your insights. 

Here are five quick takes on the power and the people behind the Pledge:

• A page-turning crime thriller. Greg Adams, a CPA and New York-based author, aims to reshape the image of the profession with a page-turning crime thriller, Green Shade$: Accountants Aren’t Supposed to Die This Way, that he published to change the perception of accountants. 

“I am hoping the book will enhance the image and brand of CPAs,” Adams said. The book takes public accountants away from the office and straight into the center of an international mystery. Who said accounting wasn’t cool? “We all need to aggressively market the ‘coolness’ and influence of being a CPA,” Adams said.

• A culture of belonging. California-based Melissa Werner, co-chair of SOMOS, Aprio’s Hispanic and Latinx ERG, is working to create a more inclusive accounting profession. She said, “I am taking this pledge [and] firmly believe that fostering a sense of belonging in the workplace is essential not only to individual success but also to organizational growth.” In building that culture, she says, “As a Latina in the accounting profession, I understand the importance of being valued for who you are and the transformative impact it can have on engagement, innovation and retention.”

• Mentoring and inspiring the next generation. Nick Dentice, a career coach at Freed Maxick in New York, takes an active role in shaping the future of accounting through mentoring and advocacy, and he knows first-hand that “the possibilities to make a difference are endless … . Each action contributes to a stronger, more dynamic accounting profession.” 

Dentice especially understands the real potential of the profession. “Throughout my career, I have witnessed the incredible opportunities that accounting can unlock, from rewarding and flexible jobs to positions that are in high demand across every industry.”

• Guiding the next generation of accountants. Martha Suez-Sales, an educator for the University of Guam, actively advocates for inclusivity and works to address some of the misconceptions about the profession. Suez-Sales said, “I’m taking the Pipeline Pledge because I am on the frontline of education, actively shaping my students’ learning experiences and professional understanding.” She said it’s vitally important to counter misinformation. “Encouraging young professionals to join our field is essential, but education is just one piece of the puzzle.”

• Imagining the possibilities. Christine Williamson, a partner at CohnReznick and the Virginia Society of CPAs Chair, is working to inspire students with personal outreach. She said, “This is our accounting profession to protect and preserve.  … We are setting a goal for our board and committee members at the Virginia Society of CPAs for 115 visits to pre-college students from September 2024 to May 2025. Join us in your organization to set a goal with your colleagues to speak about the opportunities of being an accountant. Imagine the possibilities if we all made a concerted effort.” 

The Pipeline Pledge is a grassroots effort geared at attracting more people into the profession. As a participant, you decide what activity best suits you, be it visiting a school, hosting a networking event, mentoring a CPA candidate, or advocating for policy changes. 

Sign the voluntary pledge today at Take the Pipeline Pledge – National Pipeline Advisory Group and get started!

Prioritization and implementation efforts will be focus of summer and fall

NEW YORK (Aug. 1, 2024) – The National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG), an independent advisory group convened in response to an American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) governing Council resolution, today released the final report of its recommendations to address the accounting talent shortage.

NPAG began work in July 2023. The multistakeholder group’s work was facilitated by ConvergenceCoaching LLC, a consulting firm for the accounting profession that specializes in leadership, talent and other issues.

NPAG’s recommendations, which closely follow the draft report it issued this spring, fall into six main categories: 1) address the cost and time of education, 2) make the academic experience more engaging, 3) enhance the employee experience particularly in the first 5 years of employment, 4) prioritize strategies to expand access to the profession for the underrepresented at every stage, 5) provide better support to CPA Exam candidates, and 6) tell a better story to young adults thinking about which career to pursue on the impact accounting has on businesses, communities and economies.

The prioritization and implementation of solutions recommended by NPAG and complementary efforts of other professional groups critical to the accounting  talent pipeline will be the subject of a Sept. 23 roundtable of stakeholders from across the profession.

The final report includes research results, data and demographic information from a pair of surveys – one of students, the other of stakeholders – that together encompass almost 8,000 responses used by NPAG to field test various recommendations. The report also includes refinements and incorporates feedback from scores of people who commented on the draft report between May and July. More than 15,000 people participated in briefing sessions on NPAG’s recommendations since May.

“NPAG’s approach was to start without preconceptions, make decisions backed wherever possible with relevant data, and to emphasize collaboration,” said Lexy Kessler, NPAG’s chair and vice chair of the AICPA. “The best recommendations are meaningless, however, if they’re not put into practice. Solving the pipeline problem will take sustained, collective action. While NPAG’s main duties end with the release of this report, our members intend to be catalysts and advocates for changes that ensure young people will continue to view and pursue accounting as a rewarding career choice.”  

A joint working group created by NPAG and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) is developing a competency-based model framework to help address time and cost of education challenges that some CPA candidates encounter, while aiming to preserve the mobility that allows CPAs to practice remotely and in-person around the country with just one CPA license. Public comment will be sought on model accountancy law language enabling this framework later this year.

The September roundtable on pipeline issues will be convened by the American Accounting Association, AICPA, NABA Inc. and the National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion. Goals for the meeting are to build a strategic roadmap detailing how top-priority pipeline solutions will be tasked and accomplished, establish a format for maintaining ongoing collaboration and accountability among stakeholder groups, and plan regular, transparent communications to the profession on progress.

NPAG continues to urge individuals, employers, and educators to take the Pipeline Pledge, a commitment to undertake at least two activities to positively impact the talent pool, such as participating in a high school career night or mentoring a college student.

For more information about NPAG, its final report or other information about pipeline issues, please visit accountingpipeline.org.

About NPAG
The National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) is committed to the development of a unified accounting talent strategy that reflects the needs of multiple stakeholders, leverages unbiased research, and leads to meaningful change. The independent, 22-member group concludes its term today with the issuance of its final report.

Media Contact:
Jeff May
212-596-6122
jeffrey.may@aicpa-cima.com

National Pipeline Advisory Group calls for changes to CPA licensure and accounting firm business models, more engaging course work and better messaging on profession’s strengths.

New York (May 14, 2024) – The National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG), an independent group of stakeholders working on behalf of the U.S. accounting profession, today released a set of draft recommendations to address the accounting talent shortage.

The proposals fall within six broad themes and target audiences that range from high school students to accounting professionals who have spent five years or less on the job. NPAG, composed of 22 members who represent a cross-section of roles and perspectives within the profession, was convened last summer by the American Institute of CPAs but has conducted its research and deliberations independently, facilitated by ConvergenceCoaching LLC. A final report from the group will be issued in July, including the results of its survey of students, employers and other stakeholders in the profession.

The high-level recommendations from the group are:

• Address the cost and time of education. NPAG supports a defined progression to modernize CPA licensure requirements on education. One consistent framework would guide this approach: an emphasis on mastery and readiness instead of merely time spent in school or on the job. These progressive steps are: 1) Experiential learning that offers an opportunity to earn college credits through an accredited college or university; 2) experiential learning outside of academia, delivered in a structured way by an employer or third party, and 3) a longer-term plan to create a competency-based licensure model not tied to university credit hours or experience time. NPAG urges the profession to come together in a coordinated way to make these changes and limit the threats to CPA mobility, the system of state laws that allows CPAs to practice outside their home jurisdiction without the need to obtain additional licenses.
  
• Make the academic experience more engaging. NPAG endorses ongoing efforts led by the academic community to retool introductory university courses with best-in-class resources, technology and training for educators. Principles of Accounting courses should give students a sense of the prestige and purpose an accounting career can deliver, along with attractive lifetime earning potential. More formalized support options should also be expanded to encourage students to stick with accounting programs.
  
• Enhance the employee experience by evolving business models and cultures. With changing demographics and even greater labor shortages projected in the future, students have an almost unlimited number of career and employer choices.  The profession needs starting salaries that are competitive with other fields vying for top talent. Employers need to continue their efforts to make workloads more manageable, tasks more interesting, and advancement opportunities clearer.
  
• Prioritize strategies to expand access for the underrepresented at every stage. It’s critical the accounting profession reflect the demographic makeup of the U.S. We can build better awareness of accounting careers among underrepresented populations through targeted messages, scalable college-bound experiential programs, and closer relationships between the profession and colleges and universities with high minority populations.
  
• Provide better support to CPA Exam candidates. Recommendations include addressing the cost of the Exam, simplifying the application and eligibility process and reworking the content and/or format of the Exam itself.
  
• Tell a better story. While an accounting career can lead to prestigious and financially rewarding work, misperceptions about the profession are persistent. It’s time to collectively do more to turn the tide. Among other recommendations, NPAG is urging accountants to take the Pipeline Pledge – making a commitment to lend their time to encourage students, nurture new workers and convey how they’ve built fulfilling, respected careers.

“From the outset, our group made two commitments: we would hear as many voices as we could on solutions to the talent shortage, and we would be data driven and focused,” said NPAG chair Lexy Kessler, mid-Atlantic regional leader for the accounting firm Aprio. “These recommendations are an outcome of that broad and deep focus. Our next step is to share this information with the profession at large. To be successful, we’ll need a coordinated effort from across the accounting spectrum, one that reflects urgency and shared purpose.”

To read the full report or to sign up for the Pipeline Pledge, please visit accountingpipeline.org.

About NPAG
The National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) is committed to developing a unified strategy that reflects the needs of multiple stakeholders, leverages unbiased research, and leads to meaningful change. The independent, 22-member group – established a year ago through a resolution of the American Institute of CPAs’ governing Council – began its work in July 2023 and will issue a final report on its findings this summer.

By Lexy Kessler, CPA, CGMA 

A perfect storm has converged over the past few years, resulting in a significant talent shortage in most professions. While accounting remains an attractive career choice for tens of thousands of graduates each year, the volume of new entrants to the profession has declined. That’s why I agreed to chair the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG), a group convened in July by the AICPA to develop a strategic plan designed to attract more people to a career in accounting, and to encourage more to go on and become licensed CPAs, too.  

The NPAG has been immersed in listening and learning, studying events ranging from COVID-related disruptions, to shifting trends and demographics in the labor market, understanding the new expectations of younger graduates entering the workforce, and the spiraling cost of higher education — all of which have impacted the pipeline of accountants. In addition, volatile macroeconomic conditions, the impact of new technologies such as AI and robotic process automation (RPA), and an increasingly intricate tax and regulatory environment add to the complexity behind the current shortage.  

The advisory group’s National Pipeline Strategic Plan will incorporate short-term, intermediate, and long-term recommendations. To hear as many voices as possible, the NPAG is conducting or collaborating to conduct polls, forums, and focus groups, to incorporate a comprehensive cross-section of professionals with insight into the challenges facing the profession today. So far, more than 1,300 people have already weighed in to help shape the NPAG’s focus and direction, providing input into the greatest talent challenges the profession faces.  

The advisory group’s goal is to compile a set of data-driven best practices and impactful recommendations from expert stakeholders, and to issue a draft report of findings and recommendations by the end of May 2024. 

Taking a data-driven and inclusive approach 

NPAG’s discussions on identifying the pipeline challenges reinforced the idea that there’s not a single cause of the shortage. Rather, causes range from a diverse collection of root causes, including: 

• Lower birth rates 
• An underrepresentation of diverse groups 
• Higher cost of education, as well as concerns about the expense of the additional 30 credit hours of education required for CPA licensure
• Lagging starting salaries, and 
• Concerns over the profession’s traditional workplace culture, along with issues relating to image.  

NPAG’s core mission includes reaching out to the entire profession to get a better understanding of current trends, opinions, and ideas. Early polling reveals that: 

• Employers are seeing the highest rates of turnover at the three-to-five-year experience level, followed by one-to-two-year staff 
• Employers feel the deepest need for experienced CPAs when they consider their current capacity levels 
• Poll respondents overwhelmingly say that addressing retention and keeping accountants in the profession is as important as attracting new talent to the profession.  

Also, polling data reveals these and other important points: 

• The high volume of work and potentially long hours makes an accounting career feel more challenging than other careers. 
• Inconsistency in the makeup of the additional 30 hours required for CPA licensure detracts from its value. 
• Students perceive starting salaries for accountants as uncompetitive when compared to their peers in other fields of study. 

Polls have shown that respondents feel that both the pre-college years and the college to graduation journey should be high priority areas for national pipeline solutions.  

Forging a path forward to ensure the long-term success of the profession 

In the coming weeks, the NPAG will develop and refine solutions, conduct additional polls and forums, and look for your input and ideas on the highest-priority solutions to serve our profession. In 2024, the profession will be invited to take part in a national pipeline survey. We look forward to including your valuable feedback in our strategy. Share your thoughts at cpa-pipeline@aicpa-cima.com.  

Lexy Kessler is the chair of the National Pipeline Advisory Group. She is the Mid-Atlantic Regional Leader for Aprio and is a member of the board of directors of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.  

NEW YORK (Oct. 19, 2023) — Progress is being made on the creation of a national strategic plan to address the profession’s talent shortage, attendees of the American Institute of CPAs’ (AICPA) fall governing Council meeting were told.

Since this summer, the AICPA has convened the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG), whose 22 members represent a broad spectrum of the profession’s stakeholders. The group’s mission is to use a data-driven, highly collaborative and inclusive approach to tackle issues that have led to declining numbers of accounting graduates and CPA candidates. NPAG, whose activities are steered by independent facilitator Jennifer Wilson of ConvergenceCoaching, is expected to deliver a draft national strategy plan in May 2024, with progress updates along the way.

“We’re in this together,” said Lexy Kessler, NPAG’s chair. “All of us have a role; it’s not just one of us. We all want the same outcome — to increase the pipeline. So let’s rise to the challenge on this together.”

NPAG has developed working groups that are drilling down into different “life stages” leading up to and through the course of an accounting career, from middle school and high school to college, post-graduation and on to early career paths. These sub-groups are looking into reasons why fewer people are choosing a career in accounting in those respective stages and assessing potential solutions. The advisory group is also conducting a deep dive into substantial equivalency — the concept that undergirds the ability of CPAs to practice from state to state without additional administrative hurdles or fees — and its interplay with the education requirement for licensure.

“We’re asking tough questions and having tough conversations,” said Sue Coffey, the AICPA’s CEO of public accounting and NPAG’s executive sponsor.

The advisory group has prioritized the collection and assessment of unbiased research on the pipeline. In meetings this fall, there are plans to bring in additional voices and groups with unique perspectives to ensure there is a unified understanding of the pipeline problem and a unified plan to attack it. NPAG also plans to field a national survey this year to validate and test potential solutions.

Apart from NPAG’s work, the AICPA continues to pursue shorter term initiatives to address the talent shortage through its Pipeline Acceleration Plan. Elements of that plan — including the Experience, Learn and Earn (ELE) Program – are moving forward. The AICPA Council’s fall meeting concludes today.

This initially appeared on August 10, 2023 in AICPA-CIMA’s Journal of Accountancy.

Lexy Kessler, CPA, CGMA, is the chair of the National Pipeline Advisory Group, a group of accounting stakeholders formed to help shape strategy to address the profession’s talent shortage.

Kessler is mid-Atlantic leader for the firm Aprio and a member of the board of directors of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. She is a former chair of the Maryland Association of CPAs.

In this episode, Kessler discusses why leading the group appealed to her, more about the group’s responsibilities, and why she’s excited to learn from the group’s other members.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• What the advisory group is and the approach it is taking to key responsibilities.
• Some of the ways the talent shortage in the profession has affected business.
• Why organizations, including CPA firms, must be open to looking inward for solutions to the profession’s pipeline problem.
• How the National Pipeline Advisory Group’s universally desired end result puts it in a strong position to aid the cause.

To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.

Click here to listen to the episode, or read the edited transcript below:

Transcript

Neil Amato: Welcome to the Journal of Accountancy podcast. This is your host, Neil Amato. I’m joined today by Lexy Kessler, a leader in the CPA profession. We’re going to talk about the formation of the new National Pipeline Advisory Group. You’ll hear that conversation right after this word from our sponsor.

Amato: Lexy Kessler is the chair of the National Pipeline Advisory Group. She brings to the Pipeline initiative more than 35 years of experience in the public accounting profession. Lexy is a CPA who holds the CGMA designation, and she’s the mid-Atlantic leader for Aprio, where she is a trusted adviser to business leaders in the region. Lexy is a former chair of the Maryland Association of CPAs and is a current member of the board of directors of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. First, Lexy welcome to the JofA podcast.

Lexy Kessler: Thank you, Neil. I appreciate you having me here today.

Amato: We’re glad to have you on. First, I guess I’d say regarding the National Pipeline Advisory Group, who are you guys and what are you doing?

Kessler: Good question. We’ll start there. We’re a group of 22 people that represent various stakeholders, and bring that perspective to the table for the conversation. They represent academia, public accounting, state societies, license boards, educators, and really trying to bring many perspectives to the table for the conversation. They reflect small, medium, large firms and also small to large states across the United States. The goal really was to get a diversity of opinions at the table and different perspectives so that we can make sure we’re not missing something in the conversation.

Amato: What would you say are the group’s main responsibilities?

Kessler: I think the main responsibility is stemming from the fact that we are seeing the pipeline of talent is really inadequate to meet the capacity challenges of firms across the United States. What we want to do is address, dig down to figure out what are those root causes. We’re going to do that by holding various forums across the United States, different focus groups, gathering of information, bringing the perspectives together so that we can get an idea and understanding of what is causing this, and then create a draft plan that we are shooting to present to council in May of 2024 with a draft plan of proposed solutions to help address that shortage.

Amato: Thank you for laying out that timeline. One of the hot topics as part of this discussion is about the 150-hour educational requirement, which is seen by some as an obstacle to people becoming CPAs. What is your thought on that educational requirement, which I guess essentially means another year of school after receiving an undergraduate degree for CPA candidates?

Kessler: That’s a great question as well. It is at the top of the list to discuss. The goal is to really explore the substantial equivalency early in our work. Are there ideas that we have not surfaced yet? Just to explain that for one moment, to get a license, you want to be able to drive across state lines. You want to be able to practice across state lines.

We want to try to come to a solution that will preserve mobility, and perhaps there are other ways to get to becoming what that equivalency is to allow us to be successful on this particular topic. There are multiple topics or issues, I should say, leading to this. This is one of them, very important, lots of publicity, and we’re going to take it head on.

Amato: Do you have any first-person examples of how this issue, this slowdown in young adults choosing to become CPAs, has affected your firm or businesses that you work with?

Kessler: Absolutely. When I participate with AICPA conferences, etc., or state society-level events, it’s one of the top topics is finding people. We’re having difficulty finding people. It goes back to that capacity strength that we’re seeing with less people coming into the pipeline or pipeline meaning into the profession in general. As a firm, with Aprio, we really are doing a lot to be the employer of choice. What are the things that an organization can do to be able to attract that talent because there’s just fewer people there to do it?

That’s also investing in technology and other tools to help get the work done, but you can only do that to a certain point because the reality is you still need people. This is a professional service. We still need people to be able to do the work. We need people to do the analysis. We need people to interact with a client or a stakeholder, investor, community. Whatever it may be we need to be able to get our arms around that.

Amato: In addition to these issues of how can the pathway be cleared, what is it in the profession where maybe the people in the profession, the people in this group have to look inward?

Kessler: I thank you for bringing that up. It’s a critical piece to this, to the whole equation. It’s an ecosystem that’s driving this. It’s not just one thing. For example, it’s not just the exam, it’s also the companies that people go to work for and what’s their experience like and there’s a lot of pieces that need to be discussed around that that we are starting to identify because it’s a community. It is a community of stakeholders that have to work together, which is why we’ve got the representation from the stakeholder community. It’s not 100%. We’re just the organizers of this, looking to pull in others because firms have a lot to say in this. We have an ownership that we need to take with that. That’s what we’re going to try to uncover and we’ll work through that.

Amato: In heading up this group, what are the things that excite you about it?

Kessler: Well, what really excites me is that there’s some major rock stars I get to work with, quite frankly. It’s just individuals that I love being around, people that — I’m just like a sponge listening to their experiences and why they think what they think. Do you know what I mean, what are the things that went into that? It just makes me a better, well-rounded businessperson, honestly. Then I’m just fascinated by it because I learned so much the first meeting that we had. It was amazing what came up in the conversation, a perspective that hadn’t even occurred to me and I’m on the board, so there you go.

I mean, it just will help to make me a better board member. And working with Jennifer Wilson, who is our facilitator with Convergence Coaching. She just has done a phenomenal job leading us so far. I’m excited to see where she’s going to take us as a group in getting to our goal of that May draft date.

Amato: I haven’t met all the people in the group. I’ve certainly heard a lot of their names. I’ve had a chance to have a few of them on the podcast and I am impressed. They are great people to learn from and listen from.

Kessler: Absolutely.

Amato: In this leadership role with the group, why is this effort something that appeals to you?

Kessler: I didn’t even hesitate to accept taking on this role. I am about people. I’m about making a difference, and it’s very important to me to give back to the profession because it’s been so good to me. Several years ago, I went through some coaching and one of the things that they had us do was your leadership declaration, who are you as a leader. Who I am as a leader is an inspiration to people exploring the unthinkable. People think that this is not doable. It absolutely is doable. The reason I say that is because we all want the same result. It’s not like we disagree on the end result. We all agree on that and we can all work together to get to that end result, which is increasing the pipeline.

We may have different ideas of how we get there and that’s doable. That’s how we sit down at the table, which is what we’re doing and figure it out. I’m very confident that we can figure this out when you just take a step back and think about it from that perspective.

Amato: Lexy, I appreciate the time today. Is there anything you’d like to add as a closing thought on this topic?

Kessler: I just appreciate you taking the time to reach out and do this. It’s important that we get communication out there. We want the transparency that we are doing something about this and we’re trying to increase the pipeline, and we want people to provide us that feedback because we need that feedback to be effective on what we’re doing and we will be reaching out, like I said, with the forums and the focus groups. We want people to participate so I’m going to ask you to please participate. We would like to hear from you. Again, we’re all in this together, and we’re pretty smart people. We can do this.

Amato: I think that’s a great way to end. Lexy Kessler, thanks very much.

Kessler: Thank you, Neil.

The national strategy initiative will include extensive focus groups and forums around the country

NEW YORK (July 31, 2023) – The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) today announced the formation of an advisory group representing a broad spectrum of the accounting profession that will help shape a national strategy to address the profession’s talent shortage, including accounting students who go on to obtain a CPA license.

The National Pipeline Advisory Group’s work is part of a multi-pronged approach that includes an intensive effort to use technology, surveys and in-person forums to solicit insights and input from a diverse array of groups around the country.

The advisory group includes members who represent a range of perspectives, experiences, and constituencies, including state CPA societies, accounting firms of various sizes, state boards of accountancy, educators and business and industry. The group also reflects a blend of small, medium, and large states from across the nation.

The advisory group will be chaired by Lexy Kessler, CPA, CGMA, mid-Atlantic regional leader for Aprio and a board member of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, a global organization jointly formed by the AICPA and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

ConvergenceCoaching LLC, will facilitate the collaborative effort. Jennifer Wilson of ConvergenceCoaching will be the group’s lead facilitator and will be supported by other members of her team. ConvergenceCoaching is a national leadership and management consulting firm that has worked extensively on accounting-related projects in leadership development, change management, and data analysis.

“The slowdown in young adults choosing accounting as a career is a collective problem for the CPA profession and requires a collective and inclusive solution,” said Susan Coffey, the AICPA’s CEO of public accounting and executive sponsor of the initiative. “We want to make sure we have a broad range of viewpoints and perspectives to help define the profession’s pipeline strategy moving forward. This deep, capable, and experienced group will play a critical role in guiding that conversation and subsequent call to action.”

Members of the advisory group are:

• Jeannine Birmingham, CPA, CAE, CEO, Alabama Society of CPAs
• Ken Bouyer, CIA, EY Americas DEI recruiting leader and member of the AICPA National Commission on Diversity & Inclusion
• Susan Coffey, CPA, CGMA, CEO of Public Accounting, AICPA
• Daniel J. Dustin, CPA, Vice President of State Relations, National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA)
• Joe Falbo, CPA, CGMA, Partner at Szymkowiak & Associates CPAs, PC, and past president of the New York State Society of CPAs
• Jonathan Hauser, CPA, Partner at KPMG and chair of the Illinois CPA Society
• Angela Ho, CPA, CGMA, Chief Compliance Officer, OceanFirst Bank
• Kathy Johnson, CPA, CFF, CGMA, Vice President, JS Held, adjunct professor, California State University, San Bernadino and past chair, California Society of CPAs
• Lori Kaiser, CPA, CGMA, Founder and CEO of Kaiser Consulting, LLC and past chair, Ohio Society of CPAs
• Lexy Kessler, CPA, CGMA, Mid-Atlantic Regional Leader, Aprio and board member, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants
• Elizabeth (Betsy) Krisher, CPA, CEO/Chairman, Maher Duessel CPAs and president of the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs board
• Allen Lloyd, CAE, Executive Director, Montana Society of CPAs
• Tom Neill, CPA (retired), Uniform Accountancy Act committee chair
• Michelle F. Randall, CPA, CGMA, Accounting Professor, Schoolcraft College and chair of the Michigan Association of CPAs
• Jodi Ann Ray, CAE, President and CEO, Texas Society of CPAs
• Marcus Rayner, Managing Director, U.S. Public Policy at PwC
• Rick Reisig, CPA, Principal, Pinion, LLC, and board chairman, NASBA
• Kimberly Scott, CAE, President and CEO, Washington Society of CPAs
• Lindsay Stevenson, CPA, CGMA, Chief Transformation Officer, BPM and board member, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants
• Mark Taylor, CPA, Director, University of South Florida’s Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy and 2023-24 president, American Accounting Association
• Emily Walker, CAE, Vice President, Advocacy, Virginia Society of CPAs
• Shelly Weir, President and CEO, Florida Institute of CPAs

The advisory group began meeting this month and will report on its progress at the AICPA’s Fall Council meeting in October. A resolution passed by AICPA Council members in May called for a collaborative process resulting in a research-driven national pipeline strategy that, among other things, addresses the image of the profession as well as educational and experience requirements, and outlines short and long-term actions that address the profession’s human capital needs. The Council resolution affirmed a commitment to preserving mobility for CPAs, a critical element of the system of state licensure allowing CPAs to practice across licensing jurisdictions.

Institute to Oversee National Strategy to Fix CPA Pipeline Issues 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 24, 2023) – The governing body of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) today endorsed the creation of a national strategy to boost the number of accounting graduates who enter the profession, as well as those who go on to obtain a CPA license. It also directed the organization to lead a united, profession-wide effort to achieve those aims.  

Convening for its spring meeting, which concludes tomorrow, the AICPA governing Council passed a resolution that supports the organization’s Pipeline Acceleration Plan, commits to a wide-ranging dialogue on solutions, and emphasizes the need for measurable outcomes and accountability from stakeholders across the profession. Input from those partners, which include accounting firms, state CPA societies, employers, regulators and educators, will be critical. 

“We understand the great urgency Council members expressed today on fixing our pipeline issues,” said Susan Coffey, CPA, CGMA, the AICPA’s CEO of public accounting. “We share it. We need a sustained, collaborative approach to broaden the pool of prospective CPA candidates. The path we set today strikes the right balance in moving forward with pipeline fixes that have broad consensus, while allowing deeper engagement on issues that are more challenging.”  

The resolution calls for implementation of “a continuous research-driven national pipeline strategy that, among other things, addresses the image of the profession in the eyes of students as well as educational and experience requirements, and outlines short and long-term initiatives and actions that result in measurable outcomes to address the profession’s ongoing and evolving human capital needs and priorities.” It requires regular progress updates at Council sessions, starting in October.  

The resolution also specifically endorses the preservation of CPA mobility, a competitive advantage for the profession that allows CPAs to practice across licensing jurisdictions, while considering key components of licensure. 

More details about the timing and structure of upcoming pipeline strategy sessions will be shared soon.  

About the American Institute of CPAs  

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is the world’s largest member association representing the CPA profession, with more than 415,000 members in the United States and worldwide, and a history of serving the public interest since 1887. AICPA members represent many areas of practice, including business and industry, public practice, government, education and consulting. AICPA sets ethical standards for its members and U.S. auditing standards for private companies, not-for-profit organizations, and federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination, offers specialized credentials, builds the pipeline of future talent and drives continuing education to advance the vitality, relevance and quality of the profession.