Jan 18, 2021
Caitlan McCafferty goes on record with Dr. Terry Sullivan, the cofounder and executive director of the White House Transition Project to discuss the history of presidential transitions and the important events leading up to inauguration day.
Learn More
Dr. Sullivan is a recently retired professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research continues to focus on presidential leadership and tradecraft as well as the presidential appointments process. His books on this subject include Nerve Center: Lessons on Governing from the White House Chiefs of Staff. His most recent academic article focuses on why Senate reforms to curb minority obstruction have consistently failed. It is entitled, “The ‘Nuclear Option’ has Fizzled… Again. Here’s Why and What to Do About It.” In 2015, he was selected as the Professor of the Year in the University System by the North Carolina Board of Governors.
Dr. Sullivan is also the cofounder and currently Executive Director of The White House Transition Project, a non-partisan consortium of university researchers who since 1997 have lent assistance to all the presidential campaigns and to all the outgoing and the incoming presidential administrations so that they can successfully traverse the peaceful transition of power and quickly and without troubling incident stand up the American national government. President George W. Bush has called WHTP’s assistance, “…a great help both to our 2001 transition in and then to our 2009 transition out.”