Melody Barnes

Executive Director of the UVA Karsh Institute of Democracy

Fast Facts

Director of White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama
Former executive vice president of the Center for American Progress
Chief counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
Expertise on democracy, public policy, health policy, civil rights

Areas Of Expertise

Domestic Affairs
Health
Law and Justice
Social Issues
Economic Issues
Leadership
Politics
The Presidency

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.

Melody Barnes News Feed

Sally Hemings shows us the unvarnished Thomas Jefferson

Melody Barnes

It’s time for Sally Hemings to show us the unvarnished Thomas Jefferson

Some who visit Monticello choose to ignore those facts, while others wonder why it stands at all, given Jefferson’s life as a slave owner. My hope is that Americans and visitors from around the world will come to understand the past in a meaningful, unvarnished way, and will leave with a fresh appreciation of the need to protect human rights and democratic principles. That requires an honest accounting of the facts and recognition that Monticello has a responsibility to share them with every visitor.

Melody Barnes The Washington Post

10 modern presidential speeches every American should know

The 10 most important modern presidential speeches selected by scholars at the Miller Center—a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship—and professors from other universities, as well.

Melody Barnes History.com

Wonks in training: Simulation course prepares law students in policymaking

Playing roles within a fictional White House, University of Virginia law students are working through these issues and more in a new policy simulation course taught by School of Law Distinguished Fellow Melody Barnes, who worked for the Obama administration. (Barnes is concurrently a senior fellow and Compton Visiting Professor in World Politics at UVA’s Miller Center.)

Melody Barnes UVA Today