Faculty Web

Contact

Phone: 470-578-7387

Email: dariail1@kennesaw.edu

Office Location: BB 208

Office Hours:
office hours TBD

Don Ariail

Don AriailProfessor
Accounting

Dr. Donald L. Ariail, CPA, CFF, CGMA, FABFA, CVA (inactive) is a professor of accounting at Kennesaw State University. He previously taught at Texas A&M Kingsville, System Center San Antonio, and Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU). Prior to entering academia in 2005, he was, for 34 years, a public accounting practitioner. For 26 of these years, he was the owner or partner in CPA firms.

Dr. Ariail holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in finance and a Master of Professional Accountancy (MPA) from Georgia State University. He holds three doctoral degrees: a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in accounting from Nova Southeastern University, a Doctor of Business Leadership (DBL) from the University of South Africa, and a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Higher Education Leadership from Georgia Southern University.

Dr. Ariail is a past president of the Gender Issues and Work-Life Balance Section of the American Accounting Association (AAA), the Southeast Region of the AAA, and the Georgia Association of Accounting Educators.

As of January 2025, Dr. Ariail has published a total of 94 works. Of these, 55 have appeared in peer-reviewed academic and practitioner journals. His academic publications have appeared in Accounting, Auditing and Accountability, Issues in Accounting Education, Accounting Education, Journal of Business Ethics, Behavioral Research in Accounting, and The Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting. His practice-oriented works have appeared in the Journal of Accountancy, The Tax Advisor, Today’s CPA (Texas Society of CPAs), and Current Accounts (Georgia Society of CPAs.

Dr. Ariail’s research and teaching have received 25 awards/grants and have been presented 119 times at academic conferences. In 2012, he was a Georgia Governor’s Teaching Fellow. At SPSU, in 2013, he received an Outstanding Faculty Award; in 2014, he was SPSU’s Teacher of the Year.

Dr. Ariail is a U.S. Army veteran, having served in the Military Intelligence Branch for a total of 14 years. During the Cold War, he was a strategic analyst focused on Russia. He was honorably discharged in 1984 with the rank of captain.