INTHEBLACK December - January 2022 - Magazine - Page 44
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT
Member profile
AT A GLANCE
44
DEC 2022
JAN 2023
INTHEBLACK CAREER, ELEVATED SPECIAL EDITION
Dr Kerry Bodle FCPA is the
Griffith Business School’s
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander academic director.
Her work has brought a focus on
Indigenous culture to the bachelor
of business curriculum, to ensure that
graduates are culturally capable when
working with First Nations people.
The course is also designed
to address the issue of
financial literacy among
Indigenous business owners.
STORY MEGAN BREEN
PHOTOGRAPHY ANTHONY GEERNAERT
THE ROAD
TO SUCCESS
Dr Kerry Bodle FCPA enrolled in an accountancy degree in mid-life
with her daughter’s encouragement. Overcoming imposter syndrome
to great success, she now works to embed First Nations perspectives
into the teaching of accountancy and finance.
It was not until her daughter Kylee went
to university that Dr Kerry Bodle FCPA
revisited a long-held dream to go back to
school. Her academic aspirations had been
put on hold after she became pregnant at age
16, but she had never fully let go of the idea.
“I left school in year 10, and I was voted
the ‘most unlikely to achieve’. So, you know,
that’s the pathway that you have, and you
always believe that you’re never good enough,
you’ll never amount to anything,” says Bodle.
“I had always wanted to be a maths teacher.
My eldest daughter was at uni, and she said to
me, ‘Mum, I’m sick and tired of hearing you
say you always wanted to go to uni’.
“She brought home an application form
for Griffith University and encouraged me
to apply for the accounting degree. She
said teaching didn’t offer lucrative career
pathways!” says Bodle.
At the time, Bodle was in her mid-30s,
raising four children and working part-time
at a local high school as a teacher’s aide.
She filled out the application and has not
looked back.
After finishing her undergraduate degree,
Bodle began working with the GUMURRII
Student Success Unit as a tutor and student
adviser. She completed honours and then a
doctorate, continuing her research in areas
including Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander financial literacy, business failure,
and Indigenous business and education.
Over the next two decades, Bodle taught
accounting in undergraduate and graduate
programs. She is also the Griffith Business
School Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
academic director. She developed the master
of accounting financial reporting course
based on the CPA Australia qualification
module, and has been a driving force behind
CPA Australia’s Queensland Indigenous
Accounting Forum.
“I call myself the ‘accidental academic’. I
guess this is the imposter syndrome. You are
told all your life that you will never amount to
anything, and eventually you start believing it.
“I feel like two people sometimes – one
who puts the blinkers on and says, ‘Just keep
doing what you’re doing’, and the other is
