Profile: Rowing led to law school, Homeland Security panel

Hometown: Massapequa, N.Y.

Position: General counsel at the House Committee on Homeland Security

Age: 47

Alma Mater: Baltimore’s Loyola University, San Diego University, New York Law School

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Washington Examiner: You finished undergraduate in 1991, but didn’t join the committee until you finished law school in 2011. What led you back to law school and then to Congress?

O’Hara: I coached rowing professionally at Wellesley College and at the University of San Diego. It was a great experience, I loved it, but after going on 20 years of being an athlete and a coach, I felt like I had gotten everything out of the sport that I had hoped to, and I wanted a new challenge.

Lawmaking and policy had always been interesting to me, and when I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, I was inspired by various campaigns and candidates to see if I could work my way into that world. I interned for the committee between my second and third year at law school.

Examiner: You previously trained in rowing at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego. How did you get involved with that?

O’Hara: I actually started in my senior year of college because I was going to be graduating, and I thought it would be fun to try and organize a sport, and because I hadn’t done one. I had some friends who were on the rowing team, and they were in great shape and loved it, and it had sort of this mystique about it.

I decided to give it a try, and I was fortunate to discover I had a talent for it. I made it to the national team level. I was national champion in the single, the double and the quad. At the Olympic Training Center, I was a resident athlete in the late 1990s, where I trained with the U.S. Olympic Team.

Examiner: Are there other Olympic-level athletes in Congress?

O’Hara: I don’t think so. I haven’t actually met anyone who’s trained in any sport at that level. It doesn’t mean they aren’t here, I just haven’t met them. I know Rep. Patrick Meehan, who I’ve worked with quite a bit, was a professional NHL ref.

Examiner: Did that past experience relate in any respect to working on the Hill?

O’Hara: I coached professionally for 10 years after I retired … Especially with coaching, you’re always trying to build consensus, create a common vision, and inspire people to work towards it. That’s helped me to be able to build some bridges and get things done here.

That’s one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about my job, trying to get parties that might have opinions in conflict with one another to find common ground and be able to move something forward and feel proud of it.

Examiner: What’s been a unique or unexpected experience you’ve had on the Hill?

O’Hara: I think one of the most exciting things for me are a couple of pieces of legislation that I’ve worked very hard on and been able to get passed, but also building a legal team for this committee. We didn’t have one previously. There were several lawyers on staff, but there was no actual legal shop.

So I was given the opportunity when I became general counsel to sort of create a vision for what a legal shop would look like for the committee and hire the staff. That’s been very rewarding.

I’m really proud of our team and what we provide, and everybody’s contributions. I think it’s something that adds a lot of value to the committee, and I think the members of the legal team are pretty proud of their work as well.

Examiner: Are you still involved in rowing today?

O’Hara: I haven’t been involved on the water in a long time. I still have a rowing machine that I use fairly regularly. But rowing is the kind of thing that requires constant training on the water, in the weightroom, all that stuff. I don’t have the time and the bandwidth to do that now, so I prefer the memories.