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Frank E. Bartscheck, PhD, Executive Director
Professional Staff - Brief Profiles
The Rev. Dr. Erwin Brese, Counselor
Erv is a retired Lutheran Pastor and he lives in Niagara Falls, New York. He graduated summa cum laude from Concordia Jr. College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and he received his Master of Divinity and two Sacred Theological Masters (one in the New Testament and one in Pastoral Counseling) from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1980 he received a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling from Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis. He is professor emeritus of pastoral care at Concordia Seminary in St. Catherines, Ontario, and is a certified member of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors since 1976, and a past member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.
Erv conducts workshops on family life, emotional systems, grieving, childhood concerns and family interactions. He is a married father of two and grandfather of two.
Dolores Hakes, LCSW-R, Counselor
Dolores has a Masters Degree in Social Work from the Columbia University School of Social Work. She came to the Samaritan Pastoral Counseling Center in 1990 following previous counseling experiences in family service and mental health agencies. For many years she counseled with parents of children and adults with handicapping conditions at Children's Hospital of Buffalo and the Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center. She also has certification from the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. Dolores is the wife of a United Church of Christ pastor, the mother of three adult children and has seven grandchildren.
The Rev. Robert C. Spilman, Director of Clinical Pastoral Education
An ordained Lutheran pastor, Bob is the director of Congregation-Based Clinical Pastoral Education at the Samaritan Counseling Center. He also serves in part-time interim church ministry in Western New York. Prior to coming to the Samaritan Center in 2003, he was the director of Pastoral Care and Education of the Lutheran Service Society of New York in the Buffalo area for fifteen years. He graduated from the University of Rochester, received his M. Div. degree from Yale University Divinity School, and completed his theological education for ministry at Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He served as a pastor for twelve years in North Carolina and completed three years of chaplaincy and ACPE supervisory training at North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. In 1990 he was certified as a Full Supervisor in the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. Bob participated in the Edwin Friedman Family Systems Seminars in Bethesda, MD, for ten years and continues to study Bowen Family Systems Theory in post-graduate seminars. His special interest is applying the family systems perspective to the teaching of pastoral care and pastoral leadership in the congregation. He is married and has four grown children.
Theresa R. Walker, Counselor
Theresa earned a Masters Degree in Pastoral Ministry, with an emphasis on pastoral counseling, at Christ the King Seminary, East Aurora, NY, and has also earned Masters Degrees in both Mental Health Counseling and School and Agency Counseling from Canisius College, where she was inducted into the international counseling honor society Chi Sigma Iota. After earning her Bachelors Degree in Social Sciences and serving with the Department of Labor, Theresa worked for many years as the human resource director of a large not-for-profit agency which served economically disadvantaged and culturally diverse communities. She promoted a strength-based model of human resource development, which she has carried into her counseling relationships with individuals, couples, and families, and especially with adolescents, victims of physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse, and persons of diverse sexual orientations. She is a member of ACA (American Counseling Association), ASERVIC (Association for Spiritual, Ethical and Religious Values in Counseling), WNY Mental Health Association, WNY Counseling Association, and has applied for membership in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. Theresa enjoys singing with several choral groups and is active in various ministries, through the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, at both the diocesan and local levels, primarily in the area of faith formation and development. She is the married mother of four children and three step-children, and currently has seven grandchildren.
The Rev. Dr. David Wurster, Counselor
A Diplomate with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a New York
State licensed Mental Health Counselor, David is an ordained Lutheran pastor,
retired from Salem Lutheran Church in South Buffalo. He earned his Bachelor's
Degree from Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne where he was graduated magna
cum laude. He went on to receive his Sacred Theological Masters and his Masters
of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and his PhD from St. Louis
University. David is a former Vice President of the Board of Directors of the
Niagara County Hospice, was a member of the AAPC Regional Certification
Committee and was an ad hoc member of the National Diplomate Committee. His
practice is concentrated in marital and family therapy and congregation
consultation. He has served as a guest professor of homiletics at Concordia
Seminary in St. Catherines, Ontario, and also as a guest professor at Concordia
Seminary in Nagercoil, India. His wife, Ruth, is a musician and piano teacher.
His daughters, Katherine and Abigail, are grown and both in professional
worlds, one in writing and one in theater..
The Very Rev. Gary Schindler
The Very Rev. Gary Schindler, M Div., has been with the Samaritan Center for over 6 years and has nearly 30 years in ordained ministry. He offers spiritual mentoring, mentoring for young people and pre-marriage counseling. He has had experience as a chaplain with Chautauqua County Hospice as well as working with a Hospice on a Sabbatical in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2009. and has taken training in Crisis Intervention Stress Management. Serving the Arcade and Springville sites, Schindler is also the Dean of the Southern Erie Deanery of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York. He is married with three grown children and enjoys playing guitar and volunteering as a mentor at the Springville Elementary school.
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