Kim Westermann
Professor
Contact Information
Email: kdwester@calpoly.edu
Phone: 805-756-1431
Office Location: 003-431
Dr. Kim Westermann is a professor of accounting in the Orfalea College of Business. She grew up in Southern California and graduated from Cal Poly with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting in 2000. She worked for Ernst & Young in San Jose, Calif. as an audit senior. Dr. Westermann subsequently relocated to New York City, taking a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers, ending her career in public accounting as a full-time instructor in PwC’s Learning and Education division. In 2006, she entered the inaugural cohort of the Bentley University Ph.D. program and was selected as the Henry E. Rauch Doctoral Fellow recipient. In 2009, Dr. Westermann was a visiting scholar and lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. After graduating in 2011, she spent four years as an assistant professor in Miami at Florida International University.
Dr. Westermann is interested in a variety of qualitative methods and conducts research examining auditor perspectives within their social context. She has published in Contemporary Accounting Research, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, and Issues in Accounting Education. Her in-process research is rooted within sociology and organizational behavior literatures, examining both audit practitioners, clients, and regulators about their perspectives on current issues in the auditing profession. Dr. Westermann’s work is the recipient of the prestigious 2022 Deloitte Foundation Wildman Award Medal and 2023 Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature. Her work has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal.
Dr. Westermann serves as an Associate Editor for Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory and serves on the editorial review board for Contemporary Accounting Research.