Ileana Steccolini is a Professor of Accounting at Essex Business School. She held previous positions at Newcastle University and Bocconi University and was a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney, the University of Edinburgh, RMIT Melbourne, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Getulio Vargas Foundation.

Her expertise develops at the interface among accounting and public administration and management. She has published on public sector accounting, budgeting, performance management and accountability, reform and change processes, governmental financial resilience, inclusion, participation and gender in public services.

She is the chair and founder of the Accounting and Accountability Special Interest Group within the International Research Society of Public Management, the Chair of the Standing Scientific Committee of the European Accounting Association, and a member of the IRSPM board. She is a member of the Italian Public Sector Accounting Standard Board and of the advisory board of CIPFA International.

She is Joint editor of Financial Accountability and Management and serves/d in the editorial boards of Public Administration Review, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, the Journal of Public Budgeting Accounting and Financial Management, and the Journal of Government and Nonprofit Accounting.