Experts

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Fast Facts

  • Director, Initiative on Improving Interbranch Relations and Government and visiting fellow with Governance Studies, Brookings Institution
  • Host, Democracy in Question podcast, Brookings Institution
  • Advisory board member, White House Transition Project 

Areas Of Expertise

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

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas is director of the Initiative on Improving Interbranch Relations and Government and a visiting fellow with Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. She is also an advisory board member of the White House Transition Project.

A recent recipient of a Packard Foundation grant, Tenpas is a scholar of the American presidency focusing on White House staffing and turnover and presidential transitions. She also studies interbranch relations, particularly the complex relationship between federal courts and Congress. She is the author of Presidents as Candidates: Inside the White House for the Presidential Campaign and has published more than 80 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.

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas News Feed

Senior fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas has compiled a database of the Biden administration's staff members.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas CBS19News
Senior Fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas discusses President Biden's top staff picks, many of whom served in the prior Democratic administration. According to her analysis, a majority of key staff are women and nearly 40% are non-white or Hispanic.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas USA Today
“These are firsts and they’re pathbreaking appointments,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has studied presidential personnel.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas The Wall Street Journal
Senior Fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas discusses how Biden's cabinet compares to that of previous presidents.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Newsweek
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas notes that reforms are necessary, though Trump is no longer president, but that "nothing will happen unless both parties are dedicated to enacting reform."
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Government Executive
Senior Fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas discusses the value of "gender brain diversity" in the Biden Administration.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Chief Executive