About Kelly
I help organizations see fraud before it strikes.
I’m an educator, speaker, and filmmaker who helps people understand why good people make bad choices, and how to stop it from happening in their organizations.
Who Am I?
Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope is an award-winning educator, researcher, author, documentary filmmaker, and internationally recognized expert in forensic accounting and white-collar crime.
She is the Dr. Barry Jay Epstein Endowed Professor of Forensic Accounting at DePaul University in Chicago, IL, where she teaches managerial and forensic accounting at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
But if you ask Kelly, she'll tell you she's not just a professor, She's an educator.
Her mission is to make complex topics like fraud and ethics engaging, relatable, and impossible to forget.
As Seen on
How I Got Here
One morning, Kelly was scrolling the Chicago Tribune when a headline made her stop cold:
City comptroller embezzles $30 million.
Her first thought was: Who steals that kind of money?
Her second: And how did no one notice?
That moment turned into the award-winning documentary All the Queen's Horses, which investigates the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history.
The same curiosity that led to the creation of All the Queen's Horses drives everything she does today.
What I Do
Kelly blends research and real-world experience to teach people how to recognize and respond to fraud, bias, and rationalization—the everyday psychological forces that make ethical lapses possible.
Her TED Talk, "How Whistleblowers Shape History," has reached more than 1.6 million viewers, been translated into 20 languages, and continues to help organizations around the world embrace internal whistleblowing.
She's a sought-after keynote speaker for global accounting firms, universities, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies, and is known for talks that make people laugh, think, and act.
“One of the nation's foremost fraud research experts.”
“Kelly Richmond Pope offers a riveting take on the human side of fraud.”
“Fool Me Once sets the bar high for how to protect yourself from scammers. It is an essential read.”
Credentials & Recognition
- Named among the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting (AICPA & CPA Practice Advisor, 2020)
- Director and audit chair for the Greater Chicago Food Depository
- Former board and committee roles with Mercy Hospital & Medical Center, the Illinois CPA Society, and the AICPA Governing Council
- Featured on CNBC, BBC, Bloomberg, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and more
- Author of Fool Me Once, exploring how good people rationalize bad decisions, and what that means for business and society
- Bachelor of Science in Accounting — North Carolina A&T State University
- Master's and Doctorate in Accounting — Virginia Tech
