Melody Barnes

Melody Barnes Profile

When you listen to Melody Barnes you are hearing the same voice which has provided strategic advice to President Obama as Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and to someone who has coordinated the domestic policy agenda for the current administration, working closely with members of the Cabinet. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was one of the initiatives to which she was central, and she helped the Education Secretary create new partnerships with the private sector, bringing new funds and expertise to school districts across the nation. As one of the President’s chief negotiators for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act she helped to secure one of the most notable reforms of higher education in the last four decades.

Arguably the most significant issue and achievement of the Obama Administration has been healthcare reform, and it was under Ms. Barnes’ leadership that the DPC began working with the Department of Health and Human Services at the Department of Treasury to bring in these reforms. Ms. Barnes also worked on critical new food safety executive actions, helped shape and implement the first comprehensive national strategy to deal with HIV/AIDS and worked closely with the First Lady in her campaign to end child obesity.

Before taking up a position in the White House, Ms. Barnes was on the leadership team for the Obama–Biden Transition Project as co-director of the Agency Review Working group. She was also Senior Domestic Policy Adviser for the Obama for America campaign. Helping the campaign nationwide, she appeared regularly on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Charlie Rose, Morning Joe, CNN newsroom, Good Morning America, Fox News and many others.

An attorney by profession, Ms. Barnes’ other notable posts have included chief counsel for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Director of Legislative Affairs for the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Executive Vice President for Policy at the Centre for American Progress. She is currently Senior Director of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, providing strategic advice in the creation of multi-sector partnerships across public, private and civil society. She is CEO of her own company, Melody Barnes Solutions LLC, which focuses on domestic strategy. She serves as Chair of the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions and on the board of directors of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. In the academic world, she is Vice Provost for Global Student Leadership Initiatives and Senior Fellow at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.

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  Melody Barnes is executive director of the UVA Karsh Institute of Democracy and a professor of practice at the Miller Center. She is also a distinguished fellow at the UVA School of Law. A co-founder of the domestic strategy firm MB2 Solutions LLC, Barnes has spent more than 25 years crafting public policy on a wide range of domestic issues.

  During the administration of President Barack Obama, Barnes was assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. She was also executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and chief counsel to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her experience includes an appointment as director of legislative affairs for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and assistant counsel to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. Barnes began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in New York City.

  Barnes earned her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with honors in history, and her JD from the University of Michigan. She serves on the boards of directors of several corporate, non-profit, and philanthropic organizations.