“I think that would put us 30 years into the future,” she said of the whole package. “People are going to start coming after that. They’re going to see a difference in Federal Way.”

She also sees the economic potential behind the Cascadia MedTech Accelerator, which aims to bring more medical device manufacturers to town.

Duclos was recently tapped for the Suburban Cities Association, and wants to call more attention to South King County’s top issues like transportation.

“This area has been forgotten. This is the chokehold down here,” she said. “We’re a $100 billion industry down here between Boeing and everything else. We need this chokehold broken up.”

The Multi-Service Center: 16 years of growth and more

Duclos is best known for turning the Multi-Service Center into a major regional charity.

Under her tenure, the MSC has expanded from assisting 5,000 people a year to nearly 58,000 people last year across South King County — primarily in Federal Way and Kent, but there’s also high demand in the Auburn and Renton areas. She credits an overhaul in organizational management, and staff morale, for setting the MSC on a fruitful course.

“My proudest accomplishment is changing the image and the financial stability of the agency. When I first came here, the image was very poor. It was not well run and it had a major deficit. It had lost most of its board members. The staff were really — there’s no way to say it kindly, but it felt like they were beaten down,” Duclos said.

The first order of business upon her arrival was to renovate the dilapidated building that housed the charity’s staff.

“If you come into a place that’s clean and respectful and respects you, then you’re going to want to improve yourself. So that was one of the changes in philosophy around here,” she said.

Then the MSC set forth to repair its relationships with local cities and others who provided much-needed funding. That included filing accurate and timely financial reports for the city.

“We put some standards in place,” she said, “and they started looking at us as a different agency.”

MSC’s goal is to help people reach self-sufficiency in life. Services range from energy and employment assistance to a food bank, clothing bank, adult education and more.

To use an analogy, Duclos said the agency provides the ladder, but the people climb the rungs themselves.

“We show them, here’s the ladder, here’s directions and here’s a way you can go. But we can’t take you there. You’re the one who has to get there,” said Duclos, who has a background in child welfare.

“A lot of times the choices we make are the ones that put us into a problem area. If we make better choices, we can take more control of our lives. That’s the ultimate goal of what we’re doing, trying to get people to more levels of self-sufficiency.”

Duclos noted the financial impact that the Multi-Service Center can have on the Federal Way community. MSC has more than 570 units of housing for clients. Millions of dollars in grant money goes toward projects that put people to work, not to mention generating sales tax on supplies purchased for construction. When it comes to securing funding for these quality of life services, MSC is not afraid to take a stance. Duclos has joined other organizations in Olympia to speak on behalf of the housing trust fund, for example.

As for her replacement, the MSC board of directors will interview CEO candidates this week. Duclos has some advice for her successor.

“My piece of advice is to do what we’ve always done in the past. Hire very good people, give them what they need to do the job and get out of the way,” she said.

The personal side

Duclos has carved a reputation for straightforward no-nonsense communication, which is just how she likes it after growing up on the East Coast.

“When I came out here to the Seattle area, it was a culture shock. Everybody had to be nice,” she said, laughing at one of her biggest adjustments at life in the Northwest.

“I’m used to coming from Massachusetts and Chicago where you go out and you have an argument and you go after each other like crazy. No one takes it personal… I prefer to have somebody just lay it on the line for me so I’m not misunderstanding.”

What’s something about Duclos that people might not know? On a recent vacation in Mexico, she swam with dolphins — something she calls one of her coolest experiences. She held onto their fins and hitched a ride. She rubbed their bellies and got kisses.

“The thing I took from it is that there is meaningful communication between humans and animals,” she said. Among those in her group at the marina in Mexico were young children. Duclos said she marveled at how the dolphins were careful around the children, approaching them more slowly and gently.

“They really liked the human contact,” she said. “And the fish.”