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

cbs headline
Trump team signs some, but not all, critical transition documents
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow with the University of Virginia's Miller Center who focuses on presidential transitions, said the terms of the memo of understanding outlined Wiles reflect, in her assessment, an effort from the Trump transition team to shield themselves from transparency. "They're sort of making it up as they go, because it's never been done like this before," she said.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas CBS News
article headline
D.C. Bureau Trump still has not signed critical transition agreements allowing access to agencies
The agreements are “absolutely critical,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, whose expertise as a senior fellow with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center focuses on presidential transitions.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Nebraska Examiner
miller center headline
The White House in front of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building Transitions: Planning and staffing a presidency
Join the Katzmann Initiative at Brookings and the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for an event featuring practitioners and experts on presidential transitions to discuss the strategic choices an incoming administration faces as it tries to balance working with Congress on legislations and confirmations and using the powers of the presidency.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, William Antholis Miller Center Presents
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How do you become a political appointee? With Kathryn Dunn Tenpas
Getting a job can be really hard—but getting a job as a Senate-confirmed, presidential appointee can be even harder. Today on “Transition Lab,” we welcome Kathryn Dunn Tenpas for a conversation about the role of political appointees in the federal government and the pathway to these jobs.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Partnership for Public Service
miller center headline
'Watchdogs': Holding the government accountable
Glenn Fine was the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general from 2000 to 2011 and served as the acting inspector general of the U.S. Department of Defense from 2016 to 2020. He joins Craig Whitlock, an investigative reporter at the Washington Post and author of The Afghanistan Papers, for a conversation on government accountability moderated by Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, Miller Center practitioner senior fellow and director of the Katzmann Initiative on Improving Interbranch Relations and Government at the Brookings Institution.
Guian McKee, Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Miller Center Presents
gov exec headline
The Biden administration has far less turnover than Trump. Does that impact agency performance?
Tenpas suggested Biden’s long career helped him develop a team that he knew would stick around. “He’s been in politics for so many years, he knows how to pick staff and knows who he trusts,” she said.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Government Executive