Berkley Center

Eric Wester is assistant to the presiding bishop and director of Federal Chaplaincies of the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in America. His ministry supports 230 chaplains and chaplain candidates in the military, Veterans Administration, and federal prisons. He retired from the US Army Chaplains Corps as a colonel. Chaplain Wester completed 32 years in the Army chaplaincy, ending as the senior military fellow at National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, DC. For four years at NDU he taught ethics, religion, and security. He currently serves as adjunct instructor at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and senior instructor for the Leader Development Education for Sustained Peace program at the Naval Postgraduate School. He holds degrees from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and the Army War College.