Melody C. Barnes was chosen by President Obama to serve as the Director of the Domestic Policy Council for his administration. Obama announced her appointment on November 24, 2008. She was previously Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress 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.
From 1995 to 2003 Barnes served as chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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, 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.
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. As an undergraduate, she was a Brother of Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity and a Sister of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Melody Barnes married Marland Buckner Jr. on June 13, 2009.
Melody and Marland first met each other about a decade ago in a meeting on Capitol Hill. Marland still remembers nearly every detail: her silvery white blouse, her black knee-length skirt, her graceful manner and that oh-so-casual brush-off.
The couple officially met when Marland and Melody joined friends for a dinner of fresh crabs on Labor Day weekend in 2007. Marland finished his crabs first and reached over to snare one of hers. Ms. Barnes raised her knife and warned with bone-chilling seriousness that she would cut him if he tried.
Within a few weeks , the couple went on their first date. He pretended he was taking her to McDonald’s, but they ended up at a Belgian restaurant where she said “the conversation kept going and going.”
