WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH PROFILE
Corrine O’Hara
By: Kristin Boyd
Corrine O’Hara made a beeline past the Bounce fabric sheets in her laundry room-slash-art studio and popped open a tin container holding iridescent cicada wings, which adorn many of her projects.
Her eyes sparkled like she was staring at a pile of rare diamonds.
"I could look at insect wings all day," she said. "They’re so fragile but so strong."
Ms. O’Hara, a Princeton resident, is similar to those wings. A self-described crybaby who sobs when witnessing the human spirit at work, she’s also a no-nonsense sexual-health educator determined to provide safe havens for area adolescents.
"I’ve been at HiTOPS for 20 years, and I’m so grateful that I love what I do," she said, scooting into the corner of her brown leather sofa Friday morning. "We have to be a resource for these kids. They are real people with real issues. It’s about life education, about teachable moments."
HiTOPS Health Center in Princeton offers teens comprehensive resources, including confidential HIV testing and stress management. Ms. O’Hara, a registered nurse, has worked at the clinic since its inception.
Through the years, she has developed and presented health-care seminars, parental workshops and educational classes. In 1998, she formed First and Third, a HiTOPS support group for "GLBTQ" teens who need a safe place to talk. She remains the group’s advisor.
"I just get out of the way and let kids be who they are," she said. "I love taking a seed, planting it and watching it grow. I love giving adolescents information and watching what they do with it."
Ms. O’Hara, 51, smiled, remembering all the teens she has mentored and supported, either through HiTOPS or her work with area gay-straight alliances, the Gay-Lesbian-Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the Princeton chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
"Part of it is letting them see themselves in the world," she said. "They tell me they feel safe because they can finally figure out who they are."
As sleet pelted the living-room window, and Zoe, the family’s golden retriever, curled at her feet, Ms. O’Hara pulled out a packet of colorful papers, about seven years old.
"I remember this like it was yesterday," she said, showing off the various sheets, each featuring a different woman, including ice skater Tara Lipinski, author Amy Tran and track star Wilma Rudolph.
Ever the artist, Ms. O’Hara crafted the package for a Women’s History Month presentation at Littlebrook Elementary School, where her daughters, Sarah and Rachael, were pupils. The girls now attend Princeton Day School.
"I had so much fun, and the kids were really into it," she said. "I really wanted to show them different women from different backgrounds so they would know anything was possible."
For Ms. O’Hara, several women most notably her 78-year-old mother, Julie, who lives outside Chicago have shaped her life.
"My mother really is a pioneer to me," she said. "She was really active in the civil rights movement, and even with five kids, she was always painting, always doing artwork. She is a hoot. She’s my comic relief."
In addition, Ms. O’Hara looks up to Peggy Brick, a New Jersey sexuality educator, and relies on her HiTOPS co-workers for a daily dose of inspiration.
"The women of HiTOPS it sounds like a calendar," she said, laughing. "They’re real folks, very smart, very passionate, and they really care about the community. They keep me sane."
As a girl growing up in northern Michigan, Ms. O’Hara said she remained sane by ice skating and playing with the family’s pet monkey, George named after the storybook character, Curious George.
With dreams of being a medical illustrator or teacher, she studied psychobiology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. After graduation, she painted Victorian houses and later landed a job with the Children’s Art Foundation.
"Kids need to stay true to themselves, to have their own voice and get away from symbols, to develop their own perspective," she said. "It’s fun to think 3-D or think outside the box because there are no limitations. They can connect to life and the world around them."
The world swirling around Ms. O’Hara, who has also worked at Planned Parenthood in New Brunswick and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is a busy one.
She is a member of String of Pearls Reconstructionist Church and participates in Collage, a group comprising seven women artists. She also dotes on her daughters and longtime husband, Joel, an architect.
When she needs a moment to herself to relax or to get her hands dirty she sneaks off to the basement.
There, next to the washer and dryer, Ms. O’Hara has built a personal playground, where paint brushes sub for swings.
"The walls are so ugly that I took all of the things I love and plastered them everywhere," she said, pointing to the angels, stamps, feathers, dried flowers, postcards, papier maché sculptures and altered books she has collected or created. "It’s important to have your own carved out little space."
A blue flyswatter reading "Smart Women Never Miss" hangs by the doorway. And a small photo of Glinda the Good Witch with the message "She’s Here to Help" is posted in the back.
Both seem fitting for a woman who is equal parts fragile and strong, just like the cicada wings she admires so much.

