Donna T Bruzzese

Donna Thomas Bruzzese, a 60-year resident of Albuquerque, NM, died on December 6, 2025. She was a Licensed Clinical Counselor who retired from private practice in 2023 at age 83, after a distinguished career helping hundreds of families and individuals.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Donald and Mary Jane Thomas, Donna graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College with a BA in English. She pursued graduate work at Georgetown University, where she was among the first women students on campus. There she met Domenic Bruzzese, a medical student. They married in 1963 and moved to Albuquerque in 1965 when Dom began his psychiatry residency at UNM Medical School. The Bruzzese family grew quickly with four children born in seven years: Mary Lynne, Laura, Michaela, and David. The couple designed and built an adobe home in the South Valley in 1972. Domenic died of pancreatic cancer just three years later.

Widowed at 35 with four children under age 10, Donna wasted no time feeling sorry for herself. She purchased a dilapidated downtown house on 12th Street (despite friends urging her not to), because she saw its potential and the advantages of being close to her UNM Counseling classes and her children being able to walk to St. Mary's School.

Donna's professional journey began at Old St. Joseph's Hospital as a pastoral counselor. She then became a founding member of the Family Institute, and from 1995 onward, maintained a private practice in her downtown home.

Throughout her career, Donna was a passionate and innovative learner. Impatient with traditional long-term talk therapy, she embraced therapeutic approaches that produced meaningful change. She trained extensively in psychodrama, conducting weekend sessions with fellow Albuquerque psychodramatists. When she learned about EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and its success with military veterans suffering from PTSD, she immediately pursued training. She eventually became an EMDR trainer herself, assisting people in Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Colombia, El Salvador, and throughout the United States,
including in Oklahoma City following the 1995 Federal Building bombing.

Later in her career, Donna continued her education in cutting-edge therapies. While her technical skills were impressive, clients most often remembered her genuine care and remarkable memory for details of their lives, connecting past experiences with present challenges in ways that brought healing.

Donna married the second love of her life, Jerry Ortiz y Pino, in 1989. Motivated by their strong Catholic faith, they built a life centered on family, service to others, and social activism. Donna volunteered at St. Martin's Hospitality Center, cooking meals for the unhoused. She was arrested protesting the reintroduction of above-ground testing at the Nevada Test Site and at Ft. Benning Georgia, protesting the School of the Americas.

These largely symbolic actions led to Donna's profound 30-year commitment to children in El Salvador. In 1992, she and Jerry joined a delegation to El Salvador as the decade-long civil war was ending. There she met Salvadoran women organizing aid programs for war-displaced families, which sparked her determination to support their work. Initially, Donna organized convoys of donated equipment, clothing, and vehicles. The mission evolved to include volunteer trips focused on building community centers and childcare facilities and repairing rural schools.

After more than 30 annual visits to El Salvador, Donna and Jerry founded Friends of the Children of El Salvador (FOCES), a scholarship program that keeps children in school. The program annually supports over 35 elementary, high school, and college students from the country's poorest villages. Since its inception, FOCES has raised over one million dollars and transformed hundreds of lives.

Donna is survived by her husband, Jerry Ortiz y Pino; her four children: Mary Lynne Bruzzese of Durango, Laura Bruzzese, Michaela Bruzzese (Cristian Correa), and David Bruzzese (Ann) of Tucson; three stepchildren: Miriam Ortiz y Pino, David Ortiz y Pino, and Carlos Ortiz y Pino (Katie O'Rourke); her brother, Richard L. Thomas of Pittsburgh (Jana); seven grandchildren; and two step-grandchildren. All seven grandchildren were able to visit her in the weeks before her death, as were two step-grandchildren and many friends and colleagues. The family expresses deep appreciation for the care Donna received from Roadrunner Hospice and for the pastoral care provided by Fr. Vincent Chavez and Terry Williams at St. Therese parish.

A rosary will be held at St. Therese Church on January 15 at 5:00 p.m., and a funeral Mass on January 16 at 11:00 a.m., with a reception to follow. St. Therese is located at 3424 4th St NW in Albuquerque. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations may be made to a scholarship fund in Donna's name at Friends of the Children of El Salvador (focesnm.org/memorial).