February 21, 2022

Award-winning CPA to present lecture on diversity, accessibility

Charlene Rhinehart, an award-winning certified public accountant, will discuss her career during a virtual event on March 2 hosted by the College of Business and Analytics’ Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Rhinehart will participate in a discussion “Stories of Impact: Making Finance and Accounting More Accessible.” The presentation is 5-6 p.m., and will be available via Zoom.

Rhinehart is a CPA and journalist with Chicago Southsider, an online bulletin that highlights “business success, academic progress, real estate developments, employment opportunities, tech transformations and everything that makes our community work.”

Rhinehart grew up in Englewood and at 16 knew she wanted to become a CPA “to help her community prosper,” said Jennifer Butler, the college’s director of diversity and inclusion.

A graduate of DePaul University, Rhinehart became a CPA, certified fraud examiner and project management professional before she was 26. She was recognized as one of Black CPAs 40-under-40 CPAs in the nation by blackenterprise.com, the 2021 Illinois CPA Society Lester McKeever Advancing Diversity Award recipient and the 2019 Illinois CPA Society Woman to Watch.

For more information on the event, contact Butler at jennifer.butler1@siu.edu.