School of Theology and Ministry Launches New Program in Leadership

The School of Theology and Ministry is pleased to announce the new Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership (MATL) program, which will welcome its first students in Fall 2009.

The MATL will “assist people in developing the leadership capacity that emanates from deepened spirituality, the ability to reflect on one’s own life, and the capacity to discern ways to move that promote life and the ‘common good,’” stated the Student Bulletin.

Course requirements include foundational STM classes such as Christian Anthropology and Christian Ethics, as well as new courses like “The Human Person and Meaning Making” and “Spiritualities of Peacebuilding.” Students have the option to complete a joint degree with a Juris Doctorate through the Seattle University School of Law, with the collaboration of several prominent conflict mediators in the region.

“If you look at many of the world’s great leaders—Dorothy Day, Jane Addams, Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi—none of them were theology students,” said STM Dean Mark Markuly. “But they were deeply grounded in their religious traditions. They led out of a spiritual core. This degree program is about trying to develop a civil spirituality that will allow students to lead, appealing to people’s deepest meaning systems.”

Fall 2009 applicant Peach Jack said she was drawn to the MATL’s “special emphasis on leadership that incorporates spirituality as a foundation ….This could have implications within a variety of settings, including organizations with spiritual objectives as well as those without.”

To find out more about the Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership program, contact Catherine Kehoe Fallon at (206) 296-5333 or fallon@seattleu.edu.