Melody Barnes
Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 20, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Heather Higginbottom
Preceded by	Karl Zinsmeister
Born	1964 Richmond, Virginia
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Marland Buckner Jr.

Melody C. Barnes (b. April 29, 1964, Richmond, Virginia)^{[1][citation needed]} was chosen by President Barack Obama to serve as the Director of the Domestic Policy Council for his administration ^[2]. Obama announced her appointment on November 24, 2008. She was previously Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress^[3] and led the CAP's Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative. She left the CAP in June of 2008 to work on the Obama campaign. She also served on the advisory board for the Obama presidential transition team,^[4].

She is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar Association. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Constitution Project. She received her law degree from the University of Michigan and her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with honors in History in 1986.^[5] As an undergraduate, she was a Brother of Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity and a Sister of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

From 1995 to 2003 Barnes served as chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee.^[5]

She previously served as the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and as assistant counsel to the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties^[5], where she worked with Congress to pass the Voting Rights Improvement Act of 1992. She was a board member of EMILY's List.

Barnes began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling.^[5]

Her mother is a teacher with a Master's degree in Education and her father is a retired member of the United States Army.^{[citation needed]}

Melody Barnes married Marland Buckner Jr. on June 13, 2009. ^[6]

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Melody Barnes

[edit] Further reading

• Personality Spotlight: Melody Barnes. United Press International, November 24, 2008
• Milk, Leslie. "Ten Well Dressed Women: Melody Barnes", Washingtonian, October 1, 2007.
• "Q&A", C-SPAN, January 14, 2007.

This biographical article related to politics in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e