It is with the greatest of sadness and the deepest of regret that Compassion Center announces the passing of its most beloved, precious, fearless, and courageous leader, Julie "Nurse Juhlzie" Monteiro (Creel), who peacefully transitioned of natural causes on November 11th, 2025, in the comfort, warmth, and sanctuary of her cozy king-sized bed.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA / ACCESS Newswire / November 17, 2025 / Compassion Center, the local Las Vegas community, and close friends and family will honor the life and immeasurable legacy of Julie "Nurse Juhlzie" Monteiro-our own living light, humanitarian, global community steward, loving mother, and loving wife-on December 13th and 14th, 2025, across multiple community venues in Las Vegas, NV, and beyond.

Before continuing, the Creel, Monteiro, Solovieff, and Rackley families would like to all collectively remind everyone of two things:

1. Life is too short. Love passionately. Forgive freely. Thrive. Live your dreams. Don't just sit there. Dance. Ride miniature trains whenever and wherever you can. Do it.
   

2. Keep a keen eye on your heart health; Eat healthier. Eat cleaner. Eat organic whole foods. Stay away from unhealthy, processed and ultra-processed foods. Exercise.

One of Nurse Juhlzie's favorite and most famous phrases is: "Self-care is the best care."

Rest In Power, Nurse Juhlzie. Soar amongst the celestial stars and sparkle every night.

Celebration of Life and Rescheduled Community Hoedown

That sentiment truly showed in all that she orchestrated and in each and every personal interaction that she had-right up until the untimely time of her death during the lead-up to Compassion Center's Coalition for Patient Rights' Nov. 15th charity benefit, hoedown, and toy drive, supporting over 13,500 families in the local Las Vegas community.'

Due to inclement weather, the charity hoedown has since been postponed and will now take place on December 13, 2025, at the same location. The event will now integrate a Celebration of Life for Julie Monteiro that will begin at 3:33 p.m. PST, sharp.

Given these recent developments, and the fact that Julie would not miss being part of the Compassion Center's Coalition for Patient Rights Charity Hoedown that's now being held on December 13th, 2025, at Paradise Recreation Center, 4775 McLeod Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89121, from 10 a.m. to dusk, Nurse Juhlzie will continue to unite the local Las Vegas community-this time around a toy drive for Operation Warm Heart (Nellis and Creech AFB's) and a traditional hoedown where the community will dance, vibe, play, and enjoy a celebration of Nurse Juhlzie and her storied life just like Julie would have liked.

A formal Celebration of Life will be integrated into the run of show to start at 3:33 p.m. PST on December 13th, 2025, to allow those in the community to attend, participate, and celebrate the vibrant love, life, joy, fearless heart, and countless contributions that Julie Monteiro has made both professionally and personally to each and every one of her friends, family, constituency and her surrounding community.

While there will never be another light as bright as hers, ever, we will always look for a brighter future in all that we do for all in her absence, in her name, in her honor, and we will continue to forge forward with her hard work and positive intentions at the forefront of our minds in all that we do here at Compassion Center and the Center for Incubation & Findings Research (CIFR).

Who She Was: Professionally and Personally

Professionally known as "Nurse Juhlzie," "Ask Nurse Juhlzie," and Julie Anne Monteiro, RN, BSK, Board President of Compassion Center and Integrative Providers Association, in private, Nurse Juhlzie was proudly and profoundly known as Mrs. Julie Anne Creel, a most perfect wife, an even better best friend, and a greater lover who passionately loved her husband, children, grandchildren, friends, community, and her fairytale personal and professional lifestyles more than mere words could ever describe-creating, pollinating, and driving positive, measurable change on a global level.

Nurse Juhlzie wasn't just an advocate; she was a pure force of nature already working in concert with global researchers and experts from a variety of integrative healthcare and medical cannabis backgrounds to facilitate and implement positive, measurable changes through her various roles at Compassion Center, Compassion Center International, and their Center for Incubation & Findings Research (CIFR), as well as other outside research organizations, through her consulting work done under her 100% woman-owned consulting firm, Medical Cannalyst Consulting Group LLC (MCCG).

She personally established MCCG with her management team to explore, uplift, highlight, and publicly represent the full scope of evidence-based research through presentations, interprofessional continuing medical education (IPCE) lectures and other specialty media productions and publications-all of which were/are based on highlighting the critical, yet under-represented, evidence-based, peer-reviewed scientific works of renowned scholars such as, but not limited to: Doctors (and Nurses) Sunil Aggarwal, David Bearman, David G. Ostrow, Evan DeZeeuw, Raphael Mechoulam, Uma Dhanabalan, Wendy Buck Benge, John Silver, Scott Jacobson, Kim Evans, Zaki Afzal, and Gregory Smith, among so many-many more.

A Pioneer in Integrative Healthcare, Cannabis Nursing, and Education

Nurse Juhlzie worked in legislative action, integrative healthcare, clinical education, and media and magazine publishing, where she tirelessly worked herself to the core, creating integrative healthcare, cannabis nursing and advocacy-based organizations, a nursing magazine, a cannabis nurses' network, then a couple of medical conferences and online platforms-all through her own 100% disabled-woman-owned firms, Medical Cannalyst Consulting Group, LLC and Positive JuJu LLC.

Many of those initiatives were later spun off into their own individual organizations that continue to serve her global constituency today.

Such a superstar, even after being fully disabled due to a traumatic car accident, multiple tragedies, and chronic pain, Nurse Juhlzie continued to volunteer in medical practices on a part-time basis, expanding her allopathic skills while shifting her scopes of practice to include researching the cannabis plant and CBD molecule for viable solutions she could use in her patient consultations and in her firm's continuing medical education (CME) developments.

She did this to be of service to patients and providers alike by educating, guiding, and practicing medicine as a registered nurse right up until the time of her death. At the time of her death, Nurse Juhlzie was pursuing a Doctorate in Education and a Master's in Global Business Management, which she planned on using to redirect global healthcare through her existing roles with Compassion Center and its various associated research organizations.

A fearless leader, medical cannabis nursing consultant, patient and patient advocate, and registered lobbyist (during respective sessions) in the states of Nevada, Oregon, and even on the hill in Washington, D.C., Nurse Juhlzie served her constituency tirelessly with honor, respect, dignity, and everything she could muster right up until the end, wearing that privilege like a badge of honor.

One of the many organizations that she co-founded, the (National) Coalition for Patient Rights (CPR), was recently recognized for its tireless service to patients, and thankfully, Nurse Juhlzie had the honor of joining the CPR Board President, Jeff Krajnak (USN-Ret.), on stage to receive the award and pass on the proverbial torch.

Founding and Co-Founding Key Organizations

From establishing Wellness Education Cannabis Advocates of Nevada (WECAN) in her living room with Jennifer Solas, to creating and publishing Cannabis Nurses Magazine (CNM) with Mr. Robert Herman, then establishing Cannabis Nurses Network (CNN) and Cannabis Nurses Network Conference (CNNC) with Nurse Heather Sobel (Manus), Nurse Juhlzie had an uncanny ability to synergize ideas.

Not to mention the establishment of the (National) Coalition for Patient Rights (CPR) with Cindy Brown, Vicki Higgins, Lennora Kelly (Valles), and Robert Cohen, which climbed its way up to be recognized as second in the state for representing patient rights in Nevada, plus her co-founding and incubation of the Integrative Providers Association (IPA) with Dr. Evan DeZeeuw, PharmD and Mr. James "J.B." Creel, PgM through Compassion Center and the Center for Incubation & Findings Research (CIFR).

Naturally, Nurse Juhlzie synergized and empowered not just the founding, but the Founding Fellows of the Community-Based Clinical Cannabis Evaluation & Research Network (CBCCERN) under CIFR as an autonomous extension of CIFR.

International Work and Compassion Center International

In 2021, working in concert with Mr. Jon Rothberg, Nurse Juhlzie expanded Compassion Center's international division into Compassion Center International (CCI) to support Victors Rescue Center (VRC)'s work with HIV patients and orphaned children in Isiolo, Kenya, and took great pride in every class that she helped support in their education and healthcare. The program was impactful and justified expansion into the Kingdom of Lesotho, where Jon Rothberg continues to oversee Nurse Juhlzie's vision on location.

Mr. Jon Rothberg and Nurse Juhlzie have invested an immeasurable amount of their own money, time, energy, and efforts into Compassion Center's international pilot programs, proving their various concepts, and validating their ideas with empirical data. They have further synergized Compassion Center International (CCI), an internationally focused extension of Compassion Center that implements the Compassion Center's renowned wellness, integrative healthcare, mental health and addiction, and medical cannabis treatment plan individualization programs-promoting wellness optimization, cannabis nursing, medical access, and integrative nutrition programs in underserved communities around the world facing serious health issues and/or socioeconomic barriers to living their best lives.

The Glocal Cannabis Nursing Institute (GCNI) and Research Leadership

In concert with Compassion Center International, Nurse Juhlzie founded and chartered the Glocal Cannabis Nursing Institute (GCNI) to create, implement, foster, and track the measurable impacts and outcomes, and she also served as its Founding Fellow. GCNI now operates several glocal programs internationally to educate, unite, and empower underserved populations with education, food security, water, healthcare, and wellness optimization techniques that lead people away from disease management and into a lifestyle prioritizing self-care and work-life balance over conventional work-life grinds.

She also co-founded the Institute for Neurodivergency and Neurotransmission at CIFR with James Garvey, MA, M.Div, Alyssa Vidal, and James "J.B." Creel, PgM to research the mechanisms that drive anxiety, rage, anger, bliss, joy, happiness, love, and more-to better understand the neurophysiology and impacts that environmental and emotional states have on the brain and quantum consciousness as a whole, something that she recognized overlapped between mental illness, addiction and behavioral health verticals.

A disruptive innovator across multiple disciplines, and finding great relief and healing through psilocybin and hallucinogenics, Nurse Juhlzie sought out global leaders in the psychedelic education, integration, and propagation spaces to learn what goes into the process from thought through consciousness. This eventually led her to meet James Garvey, MA, M.Div through Cindy and Rick Brown, mutual acquaintances in Las Vegas, which eventually led to the co-founding and chartering of the Syndicated Investigators Delving into Hallucinogenics (SIDHE) as an extension of CIFR with James Garvey, MA, M.Div, James "J.B." Creel, PgM, Jason Greninger, C.S.T., and Alyssa Vidal, to help with reintegration of psilocybin and hallucinogenics back into mainstream medicine and healthcare as viable alternatives for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and addiction.

She seized every opportunity to take the stage and highlight the benefits, challenges, and potential outcomes of thinking outside the box to address our healthcare and mental health challenges head-on, in the same spirit that Julie faced her personal challenges.

Spiritual Life and Buddhist Community

A compassionate and joyous thought leader amongst her glocal and local communities, Nurse Juhlzie and her husband are active members of the Las Vegas Buddhist Sangha, an extension of the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA), where she was also a Member of the Buddhist Women's Association (BWA), helping support local Sangha activities.

Together, the couple have been learning dharma, serving others, and working towards enlightening themselves and their loved ones while aligning with their individual higher selves. While they eloped and first married on December 31, 2021, at Salishan Beach in Lincoln County, Oregon, Julie Monteiro and James "J.B." Creel had a Buddhist wedding ceremony on April 1, 2023, in Mapleton, Utah, facilitated by Ministers' Assistant Michael Tanaka, who is also an ordained minister, mentor, and extended family member of both Julie Monteiro and James "J.B." Creel.

She was such a positive influence and powerful force that the world will never recover from the vacuum that was suddenly left in her absence, but we shall try.

Clinical Standards, ACNA, and ANA: Cannabis Nursing Scope & Standards

Nurse Juhlzie never stopped creating, pollinating, inspiring, and empowering those of us around her-not to mention the way she balanced her many consulting roles with grace, class, and the perfect amount of sass-just like when she was supporting the superstar Nurse Llewellyn Dawn Smith of the American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA) with their co-fostering of the Cannabis Nursing Scope & Standards of Practice, all the way from its board adoption by ACNA through its board adoption by the American Nurses Association (ANA), and subsequent co-publishing into a Volume 1 that continues to be used in educating nurses today on practicing those standards.

Nurse Juhlzie even doubled down and backed up Nurse Smith by insisting that the Compassion Center send its General Advocate and General Counsel, and members of the Integrative Providers Association board and advocacy committee, to attend the ACNA board meeting that was being held at the Patients Out of Time Conference in Kansas City, MO, June 2022, to stand beside Nurse Smith in unified support of the initiative and Nurse Smith.

Together, they strategized on board strongholds, and advocated tirelessly for integrating these developments into mainstream healthcare for the sole betterment of tomorrow by helping Nurse Smith to set the proverbial stage with ACNA to speak-ensuring that the entirety of the Cannabis Nursing Scope & Standards of Practice resolution package was ultimately read, heard, discussed, and then passed by the ACNA board in time to be submitted and approved by the American Nurses Association during their then-current meeting cycle, ultimately leading to its adoption in September 2023 and co-publishing in June 2024 by helping Nurse Smith clear the trails.

A "Glocal" Community Steward

A true "glocal" community steward, Nurse Juhlzie always jumped at opportunities to help inform and redirect her local community, leading her to either inspire or directly help out with other countries, territories, and tribal communities. She guided each of her clients toward a logical and informed foundation for integrating medical cannabis and/or integrative healthcare into their local continuums of care to ensure that all people had opportunities to engage in affordable wellness optimization in lieu of symptom and disease management.

Without expectation for remuneration, Nurse Juhlzie would openly consult, guide, and steer programs that felt like they were going to make a positive difference, regardless of where they were, as long as they had legs to get up on their feet and eventually run without constant guidance or financial help.

It was reciprocated too when global leaders in research, pioneering science, and/or education called her and engaged in collaborative conversations that led to positive outcomes and measurable changes for the communities and constituents that she so loved to serve.

Onward and upward, Queen Nurse Juhlzie Ruhlzie-your legacy of hope, pure love, joy, and compassion will continue on to spread joy and love, creating, pollinating, fostering, and driving the positive measurable changes that you and your thought leadership have envisioned.

Your biggest fans will absolutely protect and carry out the mission, maintain the vision, keep up with the momentum that you instilled, and make sure that the world around us is safe, natural, raw, beautiful, and clean-just like you liked it-for your most magnificent return.

We got this and will never forget you or let your work go unrecognized. James may even recover, too, but even if he doesn't, rest in power knowing that the rest of the leadership that you curated and cultivated will absolutely win this one for you-and not just for you, but for everyone. And if anyone proved that we all need it, you did, and you proved that while proving that all we need to do to get it is get up and do something.

VA/DoD Suicide Prevention Work and ISHP

Nurse Juhlzie was the first cannabis nursing professional in history to lecture on stage with the Compassion Center, the oldest nonprofit medical cannabis clinic system still in existence and the first to present an accredited cannabis lecture to the VA/DoD, on the benefits of integrating multiple integrative modalities into the continuum of care. In that role, she delivered one lecture, but co-produced both of the interprofessional continuing medical education (IPCE)-accredited lectures that were presented by CIFR/Compassion Center at the 2024 Veterans Administration/Department of Defense Suicide Prevention Conference in Portland, Oregon.

At that conference, both Nurse Juhlzie and James "J.B." Creel shared a stage to discuss and highlight the many benefits, techniques, completed case studies, and processes needed to successfully implement interprofessional integrations of state-legal medical cannabis authorizations into local continuums of care-highlighting all the empirical data, as well as outcomes of integrating cannabis, psilocybin, nutrition, and other complementary integrative healthcare modalities into the Veterans Administration continuum of care to improve overall biophysical health and mental wellness.

The Compassion Center's Institute for Suicide & Homicide Prevention (ISHP), under CIFR, provided another accredited interprofessional lecture by one of ISHP's co-founders and Founding Fellow, Dr. Drina Fried, at that very same VA/DoD conference. That lecture further discussed the techniques, tools, and empirical data that ISHP has that is related to suicide and homicide prevention, harm reduction and prevention strategies, and the studies that support a new approach to mental and behavioral health.

Nurse Juhlzie was honored to have co-founded the Institute for Suicide & Homicide Prevention (ISHP) with Dr. Drina Fried, a researcher she had at one point personally discovered, and her husband, James "J.B." Creel, PgM, a research administrator.

She brought Dr. Drina into a team meeting at CIFR Paradise, highlighting work that Dr. Drina had done with an unorthodox approach to preventing homicides, suicides, and physical abuse-tragedies that had directly touched Nurse Juhlzie's life multiple times in the past-advocating to sponsor that subordinate institute in tandem with her GCNI.

At the VA/DoD conference, Nurse Juhlzie also shared her stage with Mr. Eddie Deen and showcased his "backwards bicycle" concept that was associated with a program created and implemented by none other than Mr. Eddie Deen himself, an innovative neuroscientist and educator from Internal Freedom Inc. The program teaches people how to break the 800-millisecond gap in neurotransmission and take command of their own agency by emotionally and consciously operationalizing the term "take back being the captain of your own ship" to lead people out of addiction, depression, and mental and behavioral illness.

In the words of Eddie Deen, "Your brain doesn't tell you what it's doing when it's doing it", so naturally, when Nurse Juhlzie met Mr. Eddie Deen and was exposed to his program in Dallas and Rockwall Texas, she wanted to redirect and relocate part of her Integrative Providers Association Conference from Las Vegas to Dallas in order to ensure that all of her Integrative Providers Association membership understood his unique wisdom, and techniques-imprinting each and every one of the integrative providers that he comes in contact with with the ability to engage with their patients and redirect them back towards their internal freedoms.

Ryan's Law and Policy Reform

Recognizing a growing need, Nurse Juhlzie mobilized her media production crews at the Integrative Providers Association and Positive JuJu LLC to co-produce a first-of-its-kind 1-hour introduction course and a 6-hour master's course on Ryan's Law: Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act, further receiving AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ accreditation for that part of her work. She made another mark in history by establishing the first fully accredited program on Ryan's Law, inclusive of a clinical practicum, to ensure that the standards of care are not just met and maintained, but rise to support and ultimately meet multiple ever-growing needs of terminally ill patients who were/are still suffering in California.

Because Compassion Center leadership had to watch their own patient, Ryan Bartell, run into multiple policy barriers that blocked his access to medical cannabis in an in-patient setting-ultimately witnessing him die after going without his medicine for an extended period of time-Nurse Juhlzie, while still relatively new to her presidency, organized and mobilized Compassion Center, the Integrative Providers Association (IPA), the (National) Coalition for Patient Rights (CPR), and the Stormy Ray Cardholders' Foundation (SRCF) to rally around and support the bill as it moved through California committees.

She helped support California lawmakers and Mr. Jim Bartell, Ryan Bartell's father, a six- time Santee Mayor and lobbyist, by helping draft concise, yet sufficient testimony that James "J.B." Creel used in committee hearings to support the ushering of the bill all the way through to the Governor's desk with the assistance of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Americans for Safe Access, all because of superstar talent like California Senator Ben Hueso and his amazing office staff, like Erin Hickey, et al.

The positive measurable changes and measurable influences that Nurse Juhlzie created for her community did not stop with her work in medical cannabis either. She played a key role in fostering public policy reform amongst the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Las Vegas law enforcement community, as well as Las Vegas City Hall, Henderson City Hall, North Las Vegas City Hall, Clark County, Carson City Sheriff, and associated local government agencies, divisions, and nonprofit organizations on various public policies-further leading her to become a globally recognized expert in integrative healthcare and mental and behavioral healthcare, cannabis nursing, interprofessional IPCE education, disruptively innovating positive, measurable changes among her peers, lawmakers, and community stewards. She also sued the police department to effectively create and establish policies that protected pets during ongoing criminal investigations.

Personal Health Journey, Lyme Disease, and Healing at Compassion Center

In late 2018 and early 2019, over numerous occasions, Nurse Juhlzie found herself sick and crashing from overworking, ultimately landing in hospital settings multiple times over a relatively short period. This forced her and her immediate family to make a series of difficult-yet informed-decisions to prepare her and her affairs for end-of-life, as her Lyme Disease had progressed and exposed both the lack of viable options to optimize healing and the widening gap in integrative healthcare in the local Las Vegas community amid a rapid population boom.

Maintaining a bona fide sense of duty, responsibility, and connection to all of her friends, colleagues, and community stakeholders during an in-patient hospital experience, Nurse Juhlzie went against medical advice (AMA) and crawled out of a hospital bed, left it, and attended her February-March 2019 Cannabis Nurses Network Conference that was held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina in San Diego, California, where she ultimately crossed paths with Mr. James "J.B." Creel, Compassion Center's own medical cannabis researcher with CIFR and Vice Chair of the Stormy Ray Cardholders' Foundation (SRCF), the petitioning organization that initiated and implemented the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA) in 1996 and had been guiding it and several other states with peer-reviewed evidence-based research.

Mr. Creel, immediately recognizing the urgency, invited to sponsor Nurse Juhlzie to be admitted into an Oregon Coast-based program, where she would ultimately become a resident and remain under his direct care and the care of Compassion Center on the Oregon Coast for about four months before returning to some sense of normalcy. At first, Mr. Creel focused on aligning Nurse Juhlzie with bioavailable nutrition, the right kind of plant-based medicine profiles, treatment plans, and rest to reset her sick body. Then, he reengaged her with progressive activities of daily living, and an exercise program that fit the current state of her body that included long walks on the beach, hunting for shells, in a way that promoted circulation, flexibility and an improvement of her overall mobility.

It was a difficult and challenging time for Nurse Juhlzie, a licensed nurse and healthcare professional, and her family, yet given her experience, she recognized that it was in reach and obtainable. However, her right hand, Mr. Jon Rothberg, took the proverbial lead and served as her executive proxy while Nurse Juhlzie finally took time off to heal her body.

This was the start of a beautiful journey that would lead to her finding her soul mate and getting married to her best friend, collaborator, and business partner, James "J.B." Creel, as he was the executive in charge of incubating Compassion Center at the Oregon Coast as an extension of CIFR, and also happened to be the credentialed caregiver that took care of Nurse Juhlzie when she stayed at CIFR Compassion Center at the Oregon Coast.

Nurse Juhlzie arrived at CIFR Compassion Center at the Oregon Coast on April 1, 2019, where she began her healing journey, ending up under the direct caregiving support of Mr. James "J.B." Creel, a cannabis researcher, professional caregiver, and clinical and research administrator that continues to serve patients in over 18 states today through a variety of education, advocacy, and clinical support programs.

At the time, Creel had been nearing the completion of a 20-year study on how over 1,500 various cultivars interacted with over 120 disease indications, determining what works and what doesn't when it comes to direct cannabinoid interventions, operating under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program as a licensed, registered, and sanctioned caregiver, grower and researcher in Oregon. This research aided in Nurse Juhlzie's accelerated healing, allowing her a stronger return to work than she had experienced during work.

Once Nurse Juhlzie started recovering, Creel recruited her to start lobbying on the hill and in legislative chambers, eventually expanding her duties to take over Compassion Center's conference and education development division, a role she loved. Towards the end of 2019's third quarter, an opportunity presented itself for Nurse Juhlzie to take over as interim president for Compassion Center, a role she ultimately took over permanently and proudly held until she passed away on November 11, 2025.

Innovating Medical Conferences and the Web3 During the Pandemic

During her wellness recovery, sitting in a beachfront bedroom with a view as equally gorgeous as the observer, instead of simply enjoying the view and healing herself like most patients, Nurse Juhlzie could not sit still, nor allow her true passions for education and service to fade. She continued to co-create and orchestrate positive measurable changes whenever and wherever she could, oftentimes right from her king sized bed.

She pioneered the redirection of interprofessional continuing education from convention centers into cyberspace and Web3 with the Integrative Providers Association Conference series, combining live 360-degree virtual reality lecture experiences with both online and in-person medical conference venues for the first time in history to quickly bridge IPA's integrative providers with critical education during the early stages of the pandemic.

The next year, Nurse Juhlzie co-founded the Teach1Serve10.org Free Clinic Day to blend interprofessional continuing education with licensed prescribing providers and clinical practicums to provide integrative healthcare, non-opioid pain management and referrals for categorically complex illnesses, free of charge as an extension of Compassion Center.

During her healing journey, Nurse Juhlzie not-so-secretly fell passionately in love with her Compassion Center colleague and had secretly married her biggest fan and research and educational collaborator, James "J.B." Creel, on December 31, 2021, in a private and small beachfront wedding ceremony led by Creel's mother, Elizabeth Harris Waldrop.

That moment truly made Creel the happiest, luckiest, and most empowered man to ever live. Later, they had their official wedding in Mapleton, Utah, where both their families and friends came together to unite in harmony to celebrate the pair's fairytale love story and their Buddhist wedding ceremony. (Pictures: Above: Elopement | Below: Wedding)

Growing Compassion Center's Reach

The two quietly led Compassion Center from a single state with locations on the Oregon Coast and Portland Metro area to its current regional model serving underserved patient populations in over eighteen states, in addition to various extension programs uplifting communities in Isiolo, Kenya, and the Kingdom of Lesotho through one of her many BFFs, her personal executive assistant and rockstar cultural advisor, Mr. Jon Rothberg.

Promoting and expanding affordable integrative healthcare, mental and behavioral health access through the Integrative Providers Association (IPA), an organization that educates other licensed medical providers and speaks on behalf of over 14 million board-licensed healthcare professionals that empower the entire international continuum of patient care, Nurse Juhlzie advocated for, and promoted, affordable access across the entire global spectrum of interprofessional healthcare specialties-discovering, educating, uniting, and empowering all of those who empower others with affordable, accessible, inclusive and compassionate integrative healthcare.

In her far-too-short life, Nurse Juhlzie made a series of undeniable marks on history, just like her grandfather, George B. Solovieff, who invented the key and deadbolt.

A Storied Career, From CNA to Board President

A star child from a long lineage of influential figures that have truly shaped history, Nurse Juhlzie is an influential force of her own nature who was widely known by her community to be very fierce-fighting and advocating for medical cannabis, integrative healthcare, patient rights, children, animals, peace, and compassion, not to mention her multiple organizations and loving husband.

She loved to brighten the lives of others, especially little children, and it truly showed in almost everything that she did-from sending people a thoughtfully handwritten greeting card to sending in an army of advocates to protect patient and/or (service) animal rights, or a group of medical professionals to address a critical gap in care, oftentimes effecting measurable change across entire communities, government agencies, health systems and administrations.

Nurse Juhlzie didn't just build dreams; she built living legacies around educating and empowering others-especially other licensed integrative and allopathic providers-and helping, healing, and serving underserved populations while standing up for those who were too sick to speak up for themselves.

She started her fairytale, storied career in healthcare early in adulthood and climbed her way all the way up from a certified nurse assistant to the Board President of Compassion Center, a role she proudly filled for the last several years of her life.

Working her way through medical school, Nurse Juhlzie almost became a physician's assistant before pivoting back into nursing for even more flexibility to serve her patients-eventually leading her to her ultimate passion: pediatric emergency room trauma nursing, creating nursing programs, and continuing medical education.

A disruptive innovator to her core, Nurse Juhlzie continued to implement more positive, measurable change for the communities she served, all the way up until the end, where the Coalition for Patient Rights (CPR)-an organization she co-founded-is still standing up for patient rights and lifting up the Las Vegas community, hosting both a toy drive and education series to ensure affordable access to integrative healthcare.

Early Life and Family

Born in Tustin, California, on the most beautiful and perfect Tuesday, April 21, 1970, to Mr. Stephen W. and Mrs. Janet Lynn Peterson-Solovieff, Julie brightened up the entire universe with her amazing love when she was born-spreading her light, the purest of joy, and beauty and compassion everywhere she went from that point on, all the way up until her untimely passing on November 11, 2025.

Julie is preceded in death by her loving mother, Janet Lynn Peterson-Solovieff, her stoic father, Stephen W. Solovieff, her uncle, Paul G. Solovieff, and Abraão "Abe" Monteiro, her beloved second husband.

Julie is survived by her loving husband, James Braxton "J.B." Creel; a younger brother, David Solovieff (Ash-Lee); a sister, Laura Marcucci (Kenny); her four amazing children, Hunter Rackley (Kali), Connor Rackley (Shelby), Julie Creel (Shaun), and Thomas Creel; and four beautiful grandchildren, as well as countless admirers among the global/local community as a result of her tireless efforts to serve, educate, and empower integrative healthcare, all medical professionals, and colleagues-not to mention standing up for patient and animal rights.

Julie Monteiro left a void that will definitely dim the sun, if it doesn't extinguish it.

Continuing Her Legacy: Toys, Donations, and Memorial Page

The family has asked that instead of flowers, please make a conscious donation that is sprinkled with intention to the Compassion Center using the QR code above or the link below, or simply come to the event and show your love for Nurse Juhlzie by bringing a new, unwrapped toy worth $10 or more to the toy drive, and let's make sure that Julie's vision for an amazing Christmas this holiday season is fulfilled.

It is a privilege to serve, and Julie wore that privilege like a badge of honor her entire life. Let's continue to serve her legacy by carrying on with her mission and spreading integrative healthcare globally.

Donate link: https://donate.stripe.com/9B68wQcpv1xJ1Sy6rH9Zm0T

Please visit Nurse Juhlzie's memorial page at the Coalition for Patient Rights to view the 42 pages of photos in the press release by visiting: https://www.mycpr.us/julie-monteiro

There, you can learn the latest updates and opportunities to participate in a Celebration of Life, which will be held by the family in Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming, where Nurse Juhlzie had family nuclei and communities that happen to hold a very special place in her heart, and in the minds of her surviving family members.

For more information, please contact her loving husband: James "J.B." Creel, Board Secretary-Treasurer of the Compassion Center by emailing him directly at: James@compassion-center.org

To learn more about Compassion Center and the many programs that were supported by Nurse Juhlzie's classy and sassy leadership, please visit: https://compassion-center.org

REST IN POWER MY QUEEN, NURSE JUHLZIE RUHLZIE CREEL, SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE! IN THE MEANTIME, YOU WILL HAVE BETH, CINDY, MIKE, ANDY, ABE AND THE REST OF THE GANG TO KEEP YOU COMPANY.

SOURCE: Compassion Center