Experts

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

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.

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas News Feed

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
In After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency, Robert Bauer and Jack Goldsmith provide a roadmap for reform of the presidency in the post-Trump era with 50 concrete proposals concerning conflicts of interest, foreign influence on elections, pardon power abuse, assaults on the press, law enforcement independence, the role of the White House counsel, war powers, and more. Each set of proposals is preceded by rich descriptions of relevant presidential history and relevant law and norms. Both Bauer and Goldsmith served in senior executive branch positions—in the administrations of Barack Obama and George W. Bush, respectively—and have written widely on the presidency.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas Miller Center Presents