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Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Director – The Initiative on Improving Interbranch Relations and Government, Visiting Fellow – Governance Studies, Center for Effective Public Management (CEPM)
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Kathryn Dunn Tenpas is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies and director of The Initiative on Improving Interbranch Relations and Government. Tenpas is also a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, an institution dedicated to the study of the American presidency.

Tenpas is a presidency scholar whose research focuses on executive branch personnel and the inner workings of the White House. She created the first “turnover tracker” that analyzed President Trump’s turnover in light of his seven predecessors by creating a data set from 1981 through the present. During its first run (2018 to 2021, it received over 750,000 views). Publications to date focus on the Senate confirmation process, White House staffing, presidential transitions, reelection campaigns and interbranch relations.

Tenpas has authored the book, “Presidents as Candidates: Inside the White House for the Presidential Campaign”, and published over 80 articles, book chapters, blog posts, op-eds, and papers on a variety of presidency-related topics. Her peer-reviewed articles have been published in the Journal of Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Presidential Studies Quarterly.

She is the recent recipient of a Packard Foundation grant, and is studying the impact of the Supreme Court decision, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo on the federal judiciary. In addition, she hosted three seasons of the Brookings podcast, “Democracy in Question.” The podcast featured expert interviews analyzing American politics, governing and most recently, an examination of the Declaration of Independence.

Her insights on the presidency have been quoted in major newspapers like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. She has appeared on numerous television and radio outlets (e.g., NPR, Marketplace, CNN, CNBC) in the United States and abroad, and recently spoke at the Chautauqua Lecture Series (July 2026).

She also served two terms on the Board of the American Political Science Association’s Presidency Research Group, a national organization for presidency scholars, was a fellow and secretary for the Governance Institute and has been an active participant in the University of Virginia’s Miller Center Presidential Oral History Program.

Tenpas earned her B.A. from Georgetown University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Related Content

  • Current Positions

    • The Miller Center at the University of Virginia, Senior Fellow
    • The White House Transition Project, Senior Research Director
    • The Center for Presidential Transition, Fellow

  • Past Positions

    • The Brookings Institution, Nonresident Senior Fellow in Governance Studies
    • The Governance Institute, Fellow and Secretary of the Institute
    • University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Washington Semester Program and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, 2006 – 2013.
    • Washington University in St. Louis, Senior Fellow, The Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, August 2004-November 2005 (joined the Center as a Visiting Fellow in August 2004 and was promoted to Senior Fellow and Senior Lecturer in April 2005).
    • University of Pennsylvania, Associate Director of the Washington Semester Program, Adjunct Associate Professor of Political Science, taught advanced American Government seminar, Independent Study seminar and administered the program from Washington, D.C., July 1999 – June 2004 (on leave 2004-2005).
    • University of South Florida, Associate Professor, Department of Government and International Affairs, won award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching, taught the following courses: American National Government, the American Presidency, Presidential Campaigns and Elections, and the Honors seminar. Responsibilities also included Director of Political Science Honors Program and the USF Washington, D.C. Internship program, appointed December, 1993-August 1999.

  • Education

    • Ph.D. (1993), M.A. (1989), University of Virginia
    • B.A. Georgetown University (1985)

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