Founding director of EvCC ocean research program to retire

Published 5:47 pm Monday, June 15, 2026

EVERETT — The founding executive director of a unique ocean research program serving high school students across Snohomish County will retire after 23 years in the role, she said in a June 9 interview.

Ardi Kveven, a former public school teacher, opened the Ocean Research College Academy at Everett Community College in 2004, a two-year program for high school students focused on marine biology research in Possession Sound. It is a Running Start program, meaning high school students attend for free, earning both high school and college credits. The program serves 60 students annually.

Kveven’s replacement as executive director will be Josh Searle, also a former public school educator and a founding faculty member of the Ocean Research College Academy, known as ORCA.

After working as a public school teacher, Kveven said she was looking for a way for students to learn outside of the classroom in a different way. She proposed the program to Everett Community College in 2003 and received a grant from the Gates Foundation to open it the following year.

“I married those ideas, and my passion for this place as a marine science educator and lifelong whale hugger with a love of the Pacific Northwest,” Kveven said. “I just went, ‘Let’s link those together and get kids outside, get them actively doing science and asking their own questions.’ I think that’s still our core 23 years later.”

The ORCA program, located at the Port of Everett, uses the study of marine biology as a “vector for learning,” Kveven said, about not just scientific research, but also about communication, critical thinking and data collection and analysis.

“The interdisciplinarity of what we’ve been able to do here is key,” Searle said. “… The walls just break down here because we are working together across these different subject areas all the time, and the goal is to get the opportunity for students to organically see the crossover.”

Students who take part in the ORCA program have access to specialized, costly scientific equipment to measure data in Possession Sound, including a custom-built boat funded by a National Science Foundation grant. The students study all aspects of the body of water, from plankton and chlorophyll to seals and whales.

At a showcase Wednesday, students shared the research they had worked on over the past year, including measuring the level of chlorophyll at the top of the water to determine if it correlate with changes in oxygen levels in Possession Sound. (Students who studied that example found no statistically significant correlations).

For Matthew Bui, a first-year student, the program gives him the change to do hands-on work that he wouldn’t see in a traditional high school statistics class.

“This showed us real life applications, how you can use it in your own research,” he said.

In a statement Thursday, Everett Community College president Chemene Crawford wrote that the ORCA program is “one of the shining jewels” of the college, and that Kveven had a “revolutionary vision” to create its unique, hands-on learning environment.

“Her dedication has impacted hundreds of students, established a legacy of academic excellence, and built a foundation that enables students to thrive well beyond their time in the program,” Crawford wrote. “… We are deeply grateful for Ardi’s decades of service and wish her the absolute best in her well-deserved retirement.”

Diane Paige, the college’s interim vice president of instruction, wrote in a statement that Searle will bring “a wealth of experience, a passion for student success and a deep commitment” to the executive director role.

“We’re honored with every student who walks through that door because they take a risk on this place. Then we ask them to take more risks, and they’re hungry for it, they continue to respond to that, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do,” Searle said. “We’re going to build a place where they feel safe enough to take those risks.”

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.