Experts

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Practitioner Senior Fellow
TenpasVitaSEPT2020.pdf

Fast Facts

  • Nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
  • Senior research director, White House Transition Project
  • Fellow, Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service
  • Secretary, Governance Institute

Areas Of Expertise

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

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas is a nonresident senior fellow with Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, senior research director for the White House Transition Project, a fellow with the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service, and secretary of the Governance Institute.

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 50 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

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
Federal News Network
The Biden administration has a new challenge emerging for the second half of the term
Political appointees often leave an administration after the first two years. The pace of departures from the Biden administration at two years is happening at a quickening pace. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Brookings Institution Senior Fellow, Katie Tenpas.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Federal News Network
Government Executive
The Second Year of the Biden White House Brought an Uptick in ‘A Team’ Turnover
The Biden White House had a “significant uptick” in departures among its “A team” in its second year, after a relatively stable first year, according to a new analysis. The study, published on the two-year anniversary of President Biden’s inauguration by Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, nonresident senior fellow for governance studies at the Brookings Institution, defines the “A team” as the 66 senior executive positions in the Executive Office of the President, which are all highly influential and have important relationships with other government officials, stakeholders and the media.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Government Executive
Axios
Biden's second-year turnover problem
"Turnover is going to be high in year three," Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who authored the Brookings report, tells Axios.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Axios
NBC News
Biden's Cabinet is sticking around, bucking the turnover trend of his predecessors
The absence of turnover among the Biden appointees — whose jobs include stopping crime, keeping food safe and guarding against attack — is a rarity. Since Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s, only Barack Obama had no one from the Cabinet step down by the midpoint of his first term, said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the Miller Center, a think tank on the presidency at the University of Virginia.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas NBC News
Newsweek
Why Ron Klain's Exit as Chief of Staff is a 'Huge Loss' for Joe Biden
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, told The Times that finding a suitable replacement for Klain "will not be easy and may well be impossible" due to his skill set and track record. "They are headed into a re-election campaign that also increases Ron's value in that he has campaign experience and political skills," Tenpas said. "In addition, the chief of staff's Capitol Hill experience could come in handy as they confront divided government."
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Newsweek