Experts

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Practitioner Senior Fellow
TenpasVitaSEPT2020.pdf

Fast Facts

  • Director of the Katzmann Initiative and visiting fellow with Governance Studies, the Brookings Institution
  • Advisory board member, White House Transition Project
  • Fellow, Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service

Areas Of Expertise

  • The First Year
  • Governance
  • Elections
  • Leadership
  • Politics
  • The Presidency

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas is director of the Katzmann Initiative and a visiting fellow with Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, advisory board member of the White House Transition Project, and a fellow with the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service.

Tenpas is a scholar of the American presidency focusing on White House staffing, presidential transitions, and the intersection of politics and policy within the presidency (e.g., presidential reelection campaigns, trends in presidential travel, and polling). She has authored the book Presidents as Candidates: Inside the White House for the Presidential Campaign and published more than 60 articles, book chapters, and papers on these topics.

Tenpas earned her BA degree from Georgetown University and her MA and PhD degrees from the University of Virginia.

Featured Publications

Presidents as Candidates
Presidents as Candidates

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas News Feed

Presidency conference headlineLeading up to the Miller Center’s 50th anniversary in 2025, this conference shares new ideas and best practices to support a more responsible and effective presidency
Toward a more responsible and effective presidency
Leading up to the Miller Center’s 50th anniversary in 2025, this conference shares new ideas and best practices to support a more responsible and effective presidency.
Miller Center Presents
E&E News Headline
Biden’s ‘low-drama’ green Cabinet is sticking around
“Biden just generally is very low drama,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies turnover in presidential administrations. That applies both to turnover in his Cabinet as well as other senior positions that don’t require Senate confirmation. “You don’t hear much about when people are leaving. And when you do, there’s always a successor lined up, so it seems like they knew this departure was planned."
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas E&E News
Washington Times headline
Trump machine churns out plans for transition; campaign team smooths out bumps of 2016
Mr. Trump set a modern-day bar for administrative turnover, said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution who tracks turnover at the White House.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Washington Times
NBC headline
Biden's Cabinet members told the White House they plan to stay for his full term
While Biden has retained 94% of his initial Cabinet, according to the White House, turnover has been higher among his senior-level administration officials — 58%, said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who compiled the data for the Brookings Institution.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas NBC News
NHK headline
US President Biden announces candidacy for re-election next fall with video
"Everyone who supports Biden sees this upcoming presidential election as a very close race and won't be won easily," Tenpas said.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas NHK
PolitiFact
Tucker Carlson is wrong: Diversity makes the Biden administration more representative, not less
"My research shows record level diversity, how could it possibly look less like America?" said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, the author of the Miller Center’s report and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank. "To the contrary, a staff that includes more women and non-whites looks more like the broader population base."
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas PolitiFact