Melody C. Barnes
Chair

Melody Barnes is CEO of Melody Barnes Solutions LLC, a domestic strategy firm, and Vice Provost for Global Student Leadership Initiatives and Senior Fellow at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. Ms. Barnes also serves as a Senior Director at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm; Chair of the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions; and on the Board of Directors of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. From January 2009 until January 2012, she was Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.

As Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Ms. Barnes provided strategic advice to President Obama and worked closely with members of the Cabinet coordinating the domestic policy agenda across the Administration. Under her leadership, innovative new policies, practices and partnerships were initiated to address significant national challenges, including education, health care and the federal government’s relationship with local governments and communities.

Until July 2008, Ms. Barnes was the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive research institute and think tank. From December 1995 until March 2003, Ms. Barnes worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee; she served as his chief counsel from 1998 until she left the Committee in 2003. Barnes’ experience also includes an appointment as Director of Legislative Affairs for the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and serving as a Principal at the D.C.-based consulting firm, The Raben Group. Ms. Barnes began her career as an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in New York City.

Ms. Barnes received her law degree from the University of Michigan in 1989. In 198, she received her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she graduated with honors in history. Ms. Barnes media 'appearances include This Week with George Stephanopoulos, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Charlie Rose, Morning Joe and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. She currently resides in Washington, DC with her husband, Marland Buckner.

Stephen A. Patrick
Executive Director

Stephen Patrick became the Executive Director of the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions at the Aspen Institute in November, 2012. Previously Steve served as a Senior Program Officer on the Postsecondary Success Team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His work at Gates included development of a portfolio focused on Back on Track pathways that include a postsecondary credential for out of school and out of work populations, as well as development of Accelerating Opportunity, the foundation’s strategy focused on adult education populations, in partnership with a number of other funders. Prior to coming to the Gates Foundation in 2007, Stephen served as the Director of Youth and Emerging Initiatives with the New Mexico Community Foundation. He previously served as a Vice President and NM Director of the Daniels Fund, the first billion dollar foundation in the Rocky Mt region. Before joining the Daniels staff, Steve co-founded and was the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC), based in Taos, NM. He is the former Director of Youth and Indian Child Welfare Act Programs for the San Juan Pueblo tribe. He is a past President of the Board of Directors and helped to start the San Juan Pueblo Tribal Department of Education. He has served on a number of Boards including Grantmakers for Education, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), and as a former Trustee of the Bosque School. He was selected as a Next Generation Leadership Fellow by the Rockefeller Foundation and was appointed by Governor Richardson to serve as the Co-Chair of the New Mexico Commission for Community Volunteerism (AmeriCorps). In 2008, Stephen served on the Obama Transition Committee focused on Social Innovation and Civil Society. He lives on Bainbridge Island with his wife, Suzanne and sons, Jackson and Will.

Monique Miles
Deputy Director

Monique Miles is the Deputy Director of the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions at the Aspen Institute. In her role Monique works with the Aspen team to accomplish the mission of the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions which is to support community collaboration approaches, including collective impact, that enable communities to effectively address their most pressing challenges. The Forum will achieve its mission by pursuing four complementary strategies including: 1) increasing awareness by promoting thought leadership; 2) mobilizing stakeholders through network development; 3) removing barriers by advocating for effective policy; and, 4) catalyzing investment by encouraging funder contributions to the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund (OYIF).

Monique oversees the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund – the first funding collaborative of the Forum for Community Solutions. The OYIF mission is two-fold: 1) to build strong evidence of success for utilizing the collective impact and community collaboration strategy to build and deepen pathways that achieve better outcomes in education and employment for Opportunity Youth; and 2) to make the case for increased adoption of the collective impact and community collaborative approach as an effective model for community health and systems change.

Prior to joining the Aspen Institute Monique was the Director, Postsecondary Achievement at the National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC). In her role at NYEC, Monique oversaw the Postsecondary Success Initiative, a three-year national pilot that supported ten Community Based Organizations (CBOs) across the country to design and implement postsecondary programming, in partnership with local institutions of higher learning, for students who were disconnected from education. The CBO and college partnerships were designed to reengage disconnected students through bridge programming, including the delivery of developmental education and social supports during the first year of college. In this role Monique also developed and oversaw a strategic plan that included writing policy briefs, convening planning, data collection, and the delivery of technical assistance to programs across the country.

Monique began her career in education reform working as a Case Manager at Youth Opportunity Boston. In this role Monique worked directly with students remanded to the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) to design and deliver youth and career development curriculum. Monique went on to serve the same population of students through political advocacy initiatives at the Commonwealth Corporation (CommCorp).

While at CommCorp, Monique conducted assessments of curriculum, materials, and facilities, to inform the professional development and training of DYS teachers throughout the state of Massachusetts. Monique also led additional initiatives at CommCorp, including the development of a strategic plan to infuse culturally responsive instruction into the professional development training of teachers. Additionally, Monique worked with community based transition education programs to implement culturally relevant curriculum and measure outcomes. Monique has also led several development initiatives including securing federal and private grants for Dartmouth Medical School and board development work for Diploma Plus, Inc.

Monique holds a Bachelors of Science from Springfield College and a Master’s in Education, Policy & Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Nicholas J. Allsop
Program Associate

Nicholas J. Allsop is the Program Associate at the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions at the Aspen Institute. In his role Allsop works with the Institute team to ensure the three pillars of the Forum achieve measurable impact including 1) engaging and inspiring community leaders to pull together to create needle-moving change; 2) providing the knowledge and tools communities need to create effective needling-moving collaboratives: and, 3) oversee the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund with the purpose of increasing education and employment outcomes for Opportunity Youth in communities across the country.

Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Allsop was the Executive and Special Projects Associate at Mobilize.org, supporting the Chief Executive Officer with administrative duties, managing the internship program and professional development, overseeing organizational social media outlets, coordinating administrative financials and leading program specials project. Allsop is particularly proud of his work in updating the Mobilizer’s Guidebook, a 10-step guide to organizing social change.

After graduating with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from the University of Minnesota: Twin Cities, Allsop moved to Washington, DC to pursue a career in the nonprofit. Allsop currently resides on StreetWise Partner’s Junior Board and YNPNdc's Leadership Team.

Twitter: @njallsop