Barack Obama's top domestic policy adviser is a Tar Heel.

The president-elect named Melody C. Barnes head of the White House Domestic Policy Council Monday, a job that will make her his top adviser on a range of issues.

Barnes formerly served as vice president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank that also employs Chapel Hill's own Elizabeth Edwards. She also worked as a senior policy adviser to Obama's campaign.

Barnes earned a bachelor of arts in history, with honors, from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1986.

She is a native of Richmond, Va.