Transition Update: Obama Picks Economic Team

President-elect Barack Obama announced his hand-picked economic team today who will take on the task of fixing our fledging economy once he takes office next year. The team includes:

Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Treasury and New York Federal Reserve Chief, Lawrence Summers, Chief of the National Economic Council, Christina Romer, Chair of Council of Economic Advisors and Melody Barnes as his director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Barnes, the only African American woman on the team, is a member of the Obama-Biden transition team, previously served as executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and chief counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In her new role, Barnes will help coordinate the domestic policy-making process in the White House on issues including education, immigration and criminal justice. In a press conference on Monday, Obama commended the Richmond, Virginia, native as one of the nation’s most respected policy experts, saying, “Melody’s brilliant legal mind and her long experience working to secure the liberties on which this nation was founded, as well as to secure the opportunities for those who’ve been left behind, make her a perfect fit for DPC director.”