As the founding executive director of the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, Melody Barnes guides the organization on an action-oriented path to realizing democracy in both principle and practice. A public servant with more than 25 years of experience crafting public policy, Barnes served in the administration of President Barack Obama as assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. It is this experience she will draw on during the Chautauqua Lecture Series week on “The Evolution of the Modern Presidency,” offering insight into how the power and authority vested in the presidency and executive branch touch the everyday lives of Americans.

Earlier in her career, Barnes was executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and chief counsel to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy on the U.S. 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 started her career in New York as an associate at Shearman & Sterling.

In addition to her role at the Karsh Institute, Barnes is the J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, a distinguished fellow at UVA’s School of Law, and co-founder of the domestic-policy strategy firm MB2 Solutions. She is also the W.L. Lyons Brown Family Director for Policy and Public Engagement at the Democracy Initiative, an interdisciplinary teaching, research, and engagement effort led by the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at UVA.

Barnes earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with honors in history, and her JD from the University of Michigan.