Colleen McClain Mpofu, DBA

Colleen McClain Mpofu, Assistant Teaching Professor of Accounting, joined UMSL as faculty in 2022. Prior to joining academia full-time, Colleen spent 20 years leading accounting processes in large manufacturing firms, such as Ingredion, Inc. and PepsiCo. She also served as an adjunct instructor for a local university and community college in her hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana. Additionally, Colleen owns her own small business providing bookkeeping, income tax preparation, and small business coaching and serves on multiple boards of directors for non-profit community organizations.

Colleen’s teaching interests are cost accounting, financial accounting, and income tax. Her research interests include increasing strategic collaboration between accountants and other business leaders, diversity and inclusion in the accounting field, accounting students’ performance in different learning environments, financial literacy, and leadership–change management.

In her free time, Colleen enjoys traveling, spending time with family and friends, and serving in the community.

Education

DBA (Accounting), University of Missouri–St. Louis, 2022

MBA, Indiana Wesleyan University – Marion, Indiana, 2006

BS (Accounting and Finance), Indiana University Purdue University – Indianapolis, 2002

Courses

ACCTNG 2400 – Fundamentals of Financial Accounting

ACCTNG 3411 – Cost Accounting

ACCTNG 5411 – Cost Systems Analysis

Research

Her research interests include: 

• Increasing strategic collaboration between accountants and managers to enhance organizational productivity and growth. This includes:
  • Streamlining accounting processes using automation and robotic technologies
  • Useful and simplified internal financial reporting
  • Data visualization and presentation
  • Financial literacy of entrepreneurs and the impacts on business performance

• Increasing diversity and inclusion in the accounting field
• Leadership & change management
• Accounting students' performance in different learning environments

Published Research

Wood, D, Mcclain-Mpofu, C., et al. (2023) The Chap GPT Artificial Intelligence Chatbot:  How Well Does It Answer Accounting Assessment Questions? Issues in Accounting Education, 38 (4), 1-28

Conference Presentations

Murray , J., Mpofu, C., Aplin-Houtz, M, Sanders, M. (2025). The Face of Accounting: Evaluating AI Instructional Modalities on Student Learning Outcomes, Presentation at the 26th Annual Accounting Information Systems Educator Conference, July 9 –11, 2025, Denver, Colorado, United States.

Goodwin-Sak C., McClain-Mpofu, C., Wieck, M., Zimmerman H., and Merritt, S. (2019). Courageous cultures embrace automation: A grounded theory investigation to determine individual willingness to adopt automation in the workplace. Proceedings of the Engaged Management Scholarship Conference, Sep 5-7, 2019, Antwerp, Belgium.