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

Biden Names Two Obama White House Veterans to New Roles

Melody Barnes, who led the Domestic Policy Council under Mr. Obama, said Ms. Rice had the essential bureaucratic know-how required to run the body effectively and noted that she would be supported by a formidable staff of experts. “She’s an intellectual powerhouse,” Ms. Barnes said. “She has extensive government experience and knows how to manage a process, and work with departments and agencies, which is an essential part of the director’s job.”

Melody Barnes The New York Times

The best podcasts of 2020

In April, I appeared on “Recode Media with Peter Kafka” to talk about podcasts’ response to the pandemic, and was gently mocked when, asked to name some favorite escapist podcasts, I enthused about “LBJ and the Great Society.” But, in a time of constantly unfolding political and public-health crises, the PRX series, hosted by Melody Barnes, was rather escapist, transporting us to a world in which an outsized American President and personality drew on his considerable dealmaking skills to bring about progressive structural change.

Melody Barnes The New Yorker

A culture for American democracy

The raw emotion of American politics and culture were in full view, requiring us to ask: Do we have enough in common to build a multicultural democracy?

Melody Barnes Democracy: A Journal of Ideas