Experts

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Practitioner Senior Fellow
TenpasVitaSEPT2020.pdf

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.

Featured Publications

Presidents as Candidates
Presidents as Candidates

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas News Feed

SiriusXM
Dr. Katie Dunn Tenpas on the Biden Presidential Transition
Miller Center Senior Fellow Katie Dunn Tenpas is interviewed on Full Stop with Mark Preston.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas SiriusXM
Government Executive
Biden Administration Has Four Nominees Confirmed So Far
The Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate, which bodes well for Biden’s confirmation progress. However, Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said “it is difficult to forecast the impact” of the upcoming impeachment trial for former President Trump in the Senate, but “it is safe to say that it will likely slow down the confirmation process.”
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Government Executive
Marketplace
Another challenge for the Biden administration: thousands of federal appointments
“We do this odd thing of basically lopping off the top of the pyramid of our senior employees across the federal government and asking presidents to make roughly 4,000 political appointments,” said Katherine Dunn-Tenpas, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “And of the 4,000, roughly 1,300 or so require Senate confirmation,” she said. “So that’s an arduous task,” especially if the opposing party in the Senate decides to slow things down.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Marketplace
Economist
Ctrl Alt Delete—how will Joe Biden reboot American governance?
Washington residents reflect on an unusual inauguration, we look back to previous presidencies birthed in crises, and speak to Kathryn Dunn Tenpas of the Brookings Institution about repairing the machinery of government.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas The Economist Podcast
The New York Times
Fulfilling a Promise: A Cabinet That ‘Looks Like America.’
“No matter how you slice and dice the data, whether you’re looking at the cabinet or at White House staff, you’re going to see the same commitment to diversity,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, which specializes in presidential scholarship.

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas The New York Times
NBN
The Biden-Harris Administration’s Transition in Context
As Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, Dr. Kathryn Dunn Tenpas of the Brookings Institution joins the team at New Books in Political Science to discuss presidential transitions and how Biden’s cabinet picks compare with the previous six administrations.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas New Books Network