Glen Grigg, Faculty/Program Coordinator for City University of Seattle's Master of Counselling program in Vancouver, B.C., was the keynote speaker at the British Columbia Music Therapy Association's annual conference held at Capilano College, North Vancouver, on March 29, 2008. Dr. Grigg spoke on "The Future of Psychotherapy". Stephen Williams, coordinator of the Music Therapy program at Capilano College, and Susan Summers, President of the Music Therapy Association, invited Glen to bring members of the music therapy community news from the world of professional regulation and research. Glen is a member of the Task Group for Counsellor Regulation, as well as a long-standing director of the B.C. Association of Clinical Counsellors, and a researcher on psychotherapy process. Glen's talk emphasized that when therapists are accountable to a code of ethics and a standard of practice these boundaries support therapeutic creativity and innovation. The presentation was enthusiastically received, and since there was an extra guitar available, Glen stayed to pick a few notes with members of the Music Therapy Association.

City University of Seattle has created two new programs within the School of Management.  The Master of Science in Technology Management (MSTM) and the Bachelor of Science in Information Systems (BSIS) will both be delivered in multiple formats for students who wish to take classes online, in-class, or in combination.  The delivery methods that will be employed in both programs closely parallels the way technology is being used in the workplace.  Both programs begin in fall 2008 at CityU of Seattle in Renton and online.

In the Seattle area, it's estimated that thirty-eight percent of newly created jobs will be in technology, with computer and information science the third fastest growing occupation in King County, according to the Washington State Labor Market and Economics Analysis.  With 150,000 jobs created nationally in 2006 in the technology field, technology careers continue to rise according to Cyberstates 2007.  It's also been reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco that Seattle is listed as the fifth largest market for technology jobs behind Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area, Washington D.C. and Boston.

With a proven need for trained technology professionals, CityU began developing the new programs in the summer of 2007.  Members of the School of Management faculty put together a computer science review committee that was comprised of representatives from Microsoft, The Cobalt Group, Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, Merck, and Nike.  These professionals worked with the faculty to develop programs that could benefit the local, national and international workforce.  The focus was improving the relevant skills that the technology program graduates bring into the marketplace upon completion.

CityU's MSTM program focuses on the management of technology and technical teams.  It addresses the skills required of today's technical managers and, as such, it investigates specific technology platforms, implementation of new systems, virtual team management, technology infrastructure, financial information, and leadership and personal skills.  The BSIS is focused on the skills needed to successfully manage a team in a software development environment.  These skills include critical thinking, problem solving, communication, system analysis and design, software engineering and information systems management.

"Both of the new technology programs are designed to blend technical skills with business intelligence and project program management," comments Kurt Kirstein Ed.D., Interim Dean, City University of Seattle's School of Management.  Kirstein continues, "They are designed to meet the needs of technology professionals now and into the future."