Northern Virginia Community College, comprising six locations in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., is the nation's second largest multi-campus community college and the largest educational institution in the state of Virginia.

Since its establishment at the Annandale Campus in 1965, NVCC has added five additional locations: Alexandria Campus; Manassas Campus; Woodbridge Campus; Loudoun Campus (in Sterling); and the Medical Education Campus (in Springfield). In 2003-2004, the college enrolled 63,000 students in credit courses and some 250,000 more in non-credit offerings. The student body is economically and ethnically diverse, and a quarter of enrollees are international students. The school offers a wide variety of courses, and encourages students to enroll in four-year colleges after completing their NVCC education.

NVCC is part of the Virginia Community College System. The college's president is Dr. Robert G. Templin, Jr. Its fundraising arm, established in 1979, is the NVCC Educational Foundation. The NVCCEF has a Board of Directors, chaired by Patrick J. Dexter, and its Executive Director is John Ruffino. Largely through the foundation's efforts, NVCC has been able to fund an increasing number of scholarships, and in 2001 completed the Rachel M. Schlesinger Center Concert Hall and Arts Center on the Alexandria Campus.