Helen Newcomb is the secretary for Operations Division in Building 1 in the District’s Concord Park Office. She has been with the New England District for 27 years. As Secretary of Operations Division she supports the Chief and Deputy Chief of Operations, as well as the Technical Support Branch at the Concord Park District Office, and often works with the five Basin Assistants and the Cape Cod Canal Office Assistant. Her varied duties range from creating Personnel Actions in DCPDS; Travel Orders and Travel Vouchers, Training Forms, In-House PR&C’s to reimburse the Safety Office for FOH Medical Costs for Operations employees for Audio Testing, Physical Exams and Drug Testing, as well as MIPRS to transfer funds to other Corps Divisions as needed…all in CEFMS.
She also edits and finalizes congressional correspondence, and reviews Operations final pay estimates from the field for processing. After they receive Contracting Officer Approval, she notifies Millington of same via email. Another duty she performs is doing the paperwork for special awards for some employees as they retire. She maintains an “Operations Division Directory of Field Offices” bi-annually. Many District folks in other Divisions find this directory very helpful especially since GPS coordinates have been added over the past two years.
Some of the favorite parts of her job are the people she works with, both at the District and in the field as well as the District’s mission to protect and improve the quality of life for others in New England. She is a former member of the New England District’s Work Environment Committee.
Newcomb is a graduate of Milton High School in Milton, Massachusetts and the Katherine Gibbs School in Boston, Massachusetts.
In her down time, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters, as well as summer reunions with her three sisters. She took on the challenging and rewarding role of caregiver for a developmentally- challenged woman in the Massachusetts State Shared-Living program for six years while working full-time for the District. She is the past Treasurer for her church. She also worked for the Director of Operations at the Old Colony YMCA in Brockton, Massachusetts where she coordinated fundraising breakfasts with companies on the South Shore to earn money to send under-privileged children to YMCA summer camps and programs.