Charlotte Alden

I am a reporter at Cascadia Daily News in Bellingham, WA, covering education and social issues.

Born in Toronto, Canada and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, I earned an honors bachelor's degree in political science at the University of British Columbia. Most of my time at UBC, however, was spent in the office of the student newspaper, The Ubyssey. I was The Ubyssey's news editor from 2020-22, reporting on everything from student and local politics to racial justice and the COVID-19 pandemic. I was the editor of the paper in 2022-23 when the paper was named Student Publication of the Year by the Canadian University Press, and I was named CUP’s Student Journalist of the Year. For my work at Broadview Magazine in 2023, I was a finalist for Best Emerging Writer at the 2024 Canadian National Magazine Awards.

Selected clips

Cascadia Daily •

WWU draws heat for sale of two properties, records show one was never to be sold

Controversy has emerged around two waterfront properties Western Washington University has targeted to sell amid an ongoing budget deficit.


The decision has generated complaints, with questions raised about the university’s right to sell one property on San Juan Island, and concerns about the environmental and social impact of selling a historical parcel on Sinclair Island.


The San Juan Island property on the northwest side of the island, donated to the university in 1996, was never to be...
Cascadia Daily •

A new era of ADUs results in unprecedented move of a historic Bellingham home

Craig Eubank stood in an alley off Magnolia Street early on a Thursday morning in September, looking at a 50-ton house suspended four feet in the air. 


He watched a crawler dozer tug the cream and blue-trimmed, 100-plus-year-old Victorian-style house he and his wife, Shannon, had purchased for $1, several feet by several feet, toward what would be its new resting place: the backyard of a rental house the Eubanks own.  


The 1890s home at 1316 High St. was scheduled for demolition for an eig...
Cascadia Daily •

‘There’s a chance to take back your life’: Mental Health Court provides alternative to jail

The courtroom was packed on a recent Tuesday, with dozens of people lining the aisle as Amber Black walked amid cheers, music and applause to receive her diploma during graduation from Mental Health Court.

In addition to Black’s support circle of friends and family, Bellingham City Council members, members of the Opportunity Council’s Homeless Outreach Team and police officers looked on, smiling.

Then, Commissioner Nicholas Henery said the words that had been nearly two years in the making: “T
Cascadia Daily •

Lynden High School sees double-digit jump in freshmen passing classes

Only 66.3% of ninth graders at Lynden High School passed all their classes in the 2021-22 school year. A year later, 87.4% of freshmen passed.


Lynden’s striking improvements are a result of a state-funded ninth grade success initiative and the hard work of teachers and administrators.  


Passing ninth grade is the best indicator of whether a student will complete high school, said Doug Judge, a ninth grade coach at the Center for High School Success, a nonprofit that works with schools to d...
Broadview Magazine •

How Lytton, B.C., is preserving its history after a devastating wildfire

Two years and four days after wildfire incinerated most of Lytton, a village in the Fraser Canyon of British Columbia, I drove into its barren downtown. The breath caught in my throat. So little was left that I looked around, wondering if I’d driven right past. The area was free of debris, but what remained was mainly construction fences, imprints of buildings and a scattering of small flowers bursting out of the dirt.

The air smelled dusty and dry. Scorched trees rose up from the great Thompso
Cascadia Daily •

Partisan politics are infiltrating school boards — Whatcom County isn't spared

From book bans to protests over critical race theory and sex education curricula, local school boards across the country have become heightened political battlegrounds.

While officially nonpartisan positions, Whatcom County's open or contested board positions illustrate a greater political divide, as shown in recent candidate forums and interviews.

Between conversations about low academic performance post-pandemic and the need for upgraded facilities and balanced budgets, some candidates are d

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