Cascadia College

Cascadia College was created by legislative mandate in the late 1990s to serve the growing educational needs of Bothell, Woodinville, Kirkland, Kenmore, and surrounding communities. The first staff and faculty were hired in 1999, numbering less than a dozen individuals who worked from a small office in a business park near the future campus site. Over 1,100 applications were screened to select just fifteen "Founding Faculty" members. The college opened in 2000 with two buildings (CC1 and CC2) alongside the new University of Washington Bothell campus. In 2000, the college was named one of twelve "Vanguard Learning Colleges" by the League for Innovation in the Community College for its innovative structure and interdisciplinary curriculum. In 2007, Washington Monthly magazine ranked Cascadia second among U.S. two-year colleges. The institution changed its name from Cascadia Community College to Cascadia College in September 2014. The college opened Innovation Hall, a joint STEM building with UWB, in fall 2024.