Melody Barnes is professor of practice at the University of Virginia, co-director for policy and public affairs for the Democracy Initiative at the the University of Virginia, a co-founder and principal of MB² Solutions LLC, and a former member of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s Steering Committee. Barnes serves as an independent director on the Boards of Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR); Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (NYSE:BHA); on the Public Policy Advisory Board at Uber; the Marguerite Casey Foundation; and Year Up. Barnes also chairs the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions and the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund. From January 2009 until January 2012, she was assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Barnes earned her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with honors in history, and her J.D. from the University of Michigan.