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

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
WhoWhatWhy
Biden picked a lot of Obama people. Here's why it's ok.
“If you think about it, this is like a corporation that has an expiration date,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, political scientist and presidency scholar. “You’re trying to assemble the best people who will work the hardest for four years, or maybe eight if you’re lucky. And you don’t want to mess around. Every minute is valuable to try to get your program through.”
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Who.What.Why.
The Guardian
What next for Trump's trusty New Zealander?
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution tracking turnover in the Trump administration, said it was rare for White House staff to see through all four years of any presidency, with the turbulence under Trump making Liddell “even more of an exception”. According to her analysis, the longest-serving Trump staffers were insiders such as Ivanka; “those who tell the president what he wants to hear”, such as Peter Navarro and Mark Meadows; and “those who oversee non-controversial issues”. “If you can stay out of the limelight, keep your head low and avoid making enemies, you have a good chance of hanging around.”
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas The Guardian
Cavalier Daily
Miller Center webinar highlights current realities, future developments to US-China relations
The University’s Miller Center of Public Affairs hosted a webinar Monday night about the future of relations between the U.S. and China, arguing that the Trump administration was responsible for worsening tensions between the two countries. The webinar consisted of a panel of eight scholars and politicians. Five panelists from the Miller Center and Center for Politics at the University were joined by three panelists from the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, a partner institution of the University.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas The Cavalier Daily
Washington Post
For Kamala Harris, being first means attention and attacks
The portfolio Harris takes on during her tenure as vice president will illuminate which areas she is trying to strengthen in preparation for a future run, said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. And Biden, a former vice president himself, will likely be willing to support those future ambitions. “I suspect because of Biden’s age, the fact that he’s been in government for so many years and because Biden cares a lot about the Democratic Party, that I think he will do what he can to empower her,” Dunn Tenpas said. “ . . . I don’t think they need to tell her not to overshadow Biden. A vice president has a pretty tough time overshadowing a president.”
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas The Washington Post