Melody Barnes

White House Profile

Melody Barnes

Former Domestic Policy Advisor

Melody Barnes is the Former President’s Domestic Policy Adviser and the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, which coordinates the domestic policy-making process in the White House. Before joining the White House, Barnes served as the Senior Domestic Policy Advisor to President Obama’s campaign.

Prior to joining the campaign, she was the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress. From 1995 to 2003, she served as Chief Counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In those capacities, and as Director of Legislative Affairs for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and assistant counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, she worked extensively on civil rights and voting rights, women’s health, religious liberties, and commercial law.

Barnes received her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received her law degree from the University of Michigan. She began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in New York City, and is a member of both the New York State Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar Association."

Melody Barnes's Posts

Education

And the winner is...

May 4, 2010 at 11:05 AM EDT

Melody Barnes and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announce the winner of the 2010 Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge.

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Innovations

An Exciting Day for Service and Social Innovation

April 21, 2010 at 3:00 PM EDT

Melody Barnes, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, discusses the one year anniversary of the President signing the bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act and announces the launch of the new website for the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.

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Healthy Kids

Following Up on the Childhood Obesity Meeting

April 10, 2010 at 12:38 PM EDT

Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Melody Barnes discusses the meeting that brought teachers and child advocates, doctors and nurses, business leaders and public servants, researchers and health experts together to talk about about this important issue.

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Healthy Kids

Tune in to Friday’s White House Childhood Obesity Meeting

April 8, 2010 at 4:03 PM EDT

Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Melody Barnes announces the upcoming Childhood Obesity meeting where experts and industry leaders from across the country will come to the White House to discuss this important issue.

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Healthy Kids

Send in Your Ideas

March 16, 2010 at 1:17 PM EDT

The First Lady has set an ambitious goal to solve the challenge of childhood obesity in this Nation within a generation. We want the best ideas from across the country and invite you to send in your thoughts.

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Economy

Innovation with Crawfish Sauce: What a New Orleans Nonprofit Can Teach the Rest of the Country

October 30, 2009 at 5:27 PM EDT

Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes reports on her visit to a New Orleans cafe where at-risk youth are training to continue the city's trademark cuisine tradition.

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Service

A Community Solution that Helps Everyone Win: My Visit to an Innovative Program in Iowa

July 31, 2009 at 11:20 AM EDT

Since the President spoke to us last month about his "community solutions" agenda, a number of people have asked me, "What exactly do community solutions look like?" Well, many of us already have them in our own neighborhoods – innovative answers to our local challenges, creative and results-oriented solutions just waiting to be discovered.

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