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.

Tenpas is a scholar of the American presidency focusing on White House staffing and turnover, presidential transitions, and the intersection of politics and policy within the presidency (e.g., presidential reelection campaigns, trends in presidential travel, and polling). 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

NECN screenshot
How ‘making politics boring again' kept Biden's cabinet mostly drama-free
When it comes to drama within the White House, Biden’s administration has actually been exceptionally boring – and that’s no mistake.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas NECN
National Journal headline
Can Biden's Cabinet secretaries hold out for one more year?
The president has enjoyed historically low turnover among his department heads. But historians debate whether that's always a good thing.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, Russell Riley National Journal
WSJ
When Washington Calls for Firings, Biden Usually Says No
Only one member of Biden’s cabinet has stepped down since the start of the administration: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. That is the least turnover of any presidency going back to at least Ronald Reagan, according to data collected by Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at Brookings who studies personnel changes in the government. For other senior level positions, Biden’s turnover is on par with past presidents such as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas The Wall Street Journal
NPR headline
Trump allies craft plans to give him unprecedented power if he wins the White House
It's not that the federal service isn't in need of reforms, says Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. But she says Trump wants to create a class of federal workers who will do whatever the president wants — and if they don't, they can be easily fired.

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas NPR
Presidency conference headlineLeading up to the Miller Center’s 50th anniversary in 2025, this conference shares new ideas and best practices to support a more responsible and effective presidency
Toward a more responsible and effective presidency
Leading up to the Miller Center’s 50th anniversary in 2025, this conference shares new ideas and best practices to support a more responsible and effective presidency.
Miller Center Presents
E&E News Headline
Biden’s ‘low-drama’ green Cabinet is sticking around
“Biden just generally is very low drama,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies turnover in presidential administrations. That applies both to turnover in his Cabinet as well as other senior positions that don’t require Senate confirmation. “You don’t hear much about when people are leaving. And when you do, there’s always a successor lined up, so it seems like they knew this departure was planned."
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas E&E News