Melody Barnes is co-founder and principal of MB2 Solutions, a domestic strategy firm, and a senior fellow and Compton Visiting Professor in World Politics at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

Melody Barnes served as assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) from January 2009 until January 2012. In that capacity, she provided strategic advice to President Obama and worked closely with members of the Cabinet coordinating the domestic policy agenda across the administration.

Under Barnes’ leadership, innovative new policies, practices and partnerships were initiated to address significant national challenges. Barnes was instrumental in crafting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including the ground breaking education reform initiative, Race to the Top. She worked closely with Education Secretary Arne Duncan to create new partnerships with the private sector that deploy math and science resources and expertise to school districts around the country. Barnes also helped secure the most significant reform of higher education in forty years while serving as one of President Obama’s chief negotiators of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act.

Prior to her work in the White House, Barnes served on the leadership team for the Obama-Biden Transition Project where she co-directed the Agency Review Working Group. In addition, Barnes served as Senior Domestic Policy Advisor to the Obama for America campaign. During the campaign, she helped coordinate policy development and served as a surrogate across the country, as well as on television and radio. Barnes’ media appearances include The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Charlie Rose, Morning Joe, Andrea Mitchell Reports, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, CNN Newsroom, The Today Show, Good Morning America, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Fox News, The Diane Rehm Show, All Things Considered and Tell Me More with Michele Martin.

Until July 2008, Barnes was the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive research institute and think tank. From December 1995 until March 2003, Barnes worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee; she served as his chief counsel from 1998 until she left the Committee in 2003. Barnes’ experience also includes an appointment as Director of Legislative Affairs for the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Barnes began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in New York City.

Barnes chairs the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions and Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund and serves on the boards of Ventas, Booz Allen Hamilton, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, Year Up, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

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