Cascadia College

Cascadia offers two-year associate degrees, a bachelor's degree certificate program and continuing education courses, professional training, and contract programs customized to local businesses. Cascadia gained accreditation in 2006 from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. In September 2014, the Board of Trustees of the former Cascadia Community College voted to change the school's name to Cascadia College. Historically created by legislative mandate, Cascadia Community College hired its first staff and faculty in 1999. These individuals numbered less than a dozen and handled all administrative duties including the development of curriculum and programs of studies, recruiting and hiring faculty and staff, and development and design of the permanent campus. Founding staff, administrators, and the four members of the innovative Cascadia "Curriculum Learning Design Team" worked for twelve months in a small office in a business park just about one mile from the new Cascadia campus. Most important decisions were made or announced at a small communal table in the center of the Cascadia temporary office. In this room, all important decisions were deliberated and decided upon. Over 1,100 applications were screened to select just fifteen "Founding Faculty" members along with 55 Associate (part-time) Faculty who would be brought to Bothell in 2000 and oriented to join this innovative learning environment. In 2000, in recognition of its innovative structure, interdisciplinary curriculum, and outcomes-based organization, Cascadia was named as one of twelve "Vanguard Learning Colleges" by the League for Innovation in the Community College. In a 2007 list of the top U.S. two-year colleges created by Washington Monthly magazine, Cascadia ranked second, behind Atlanta Technical College.