Obama appoints a Progressive with NC ties to head the Domestic Policy Council

Melody Barnes is the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress. She is also on the advisory board for president-elect Barack Obama's presidential transition team, and today was named to be Obama's Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

"The Domestic Policy Council coordinates the domestic policy-making process in the White House and offers policy advice to the President. The DPC also works to ensure that domestic policy initiatives are coordinated and consistent throughout federal agencies. Finally, the DPC monitors the implementation of domestic policy, and represents the President's priorities to other branches of government." from http://www.whitehouse.gov/dpc/

Melody Barnes 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.

From 1995 to 2003 Barnes served as chief counsel to Senator Edward 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.

Read her article in the Washington Post

What a Progressive President Might Say
By Melody Barnes
Special to washingtonpost.com's Think Tank Town
Monday, January 22, 2007; 12:00 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR200701...

watch her on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmuGoH3RJHA

Center for American Progress Executive Vice President for Policy Melody Barnes interviewed by CSPAN's Brian Lamb for Q&A CSPAN's program profiling influential figures in Washington.