The new executive director at Good Samaritan Ministries in Helena brings a considerable background in social work.

The Good Samaritan board has announced that Teresa Schlauch will succeed Theresa Ortega at Good Samaritan, a social- services outreach of the Helena area’s four Roman Catholic parishes. Good Samaritan assists people in need and supports that work partly through operation of the Good Samaritan Thrift Store.

Schlauch has been in social work for 30 years, largely in Helena.

Her background includes protective services for the state Child and Family Services Division; social work at St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena; and work with adults who have developmental disabilities. In 2000, Schlauch and a partner started Capital City Case Management, a business designed to help elderly people remain in their homes as long as possible.

Schlauch holds a bachelor’s degree from Carroll College and a master’s from the University of Montana in Missoula. Her first day as executive director at Good Samaritan was Nov. 15.

Ortega is moving to California. In the summer, husband Richard Ortega, Ed.D., left a vice presidency at Carroll College to work at Holy Names University in Oakland, Calif. Theresa Ortega has remained in Helena this fall. The Good Samaritan board said she would assist Schlauch through November.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 27, No. 11, November 18, 2011.