MEET OUR FOUNDER
Feliza Castro is an entrepreneur, creative executive and pioneer of Illinois’ cannabis industry whose career has been defined by an ability to recognize opportunity before a market is fully formed, and then help build the infrastructure that allows it to grow.
Her professional life began in fashion: retail, management, purchasing and eventually wholesale.
Working in wholesale apparel, Castro managed West Coast territories for established brands. In Los Angeles, Castro developed an instinct for emerging markets, consumer behavior, sales, brand positioning and the relationships that move an industry forward.
Living and working in California placed her in a culture where medical cannabis was already becoming increasingly visible, years before Illinois had created a meaningful legal market of its own.
In 2012, Castro moved from Los Angeles to Chicago.
The timing would prove consequential.
As Illinois began creating its new medical cannabis pilot program, Castro recognized something beyond the excitement surrounding legalization: an enormous gap between passing a law and actually making that law accessible to the people it was intended to serve.
At 25 years old, Castro was a single mother building a new life in Chicago, with no established network in the cannabis industry and no existing business model to follow.
On October 1, 2014, the day after Illinois began accepting patient applications, Castro opened The Healing Clinic and began helping patients enter the state’s medical cannabis program.
The Healing Clinic became the first business operating within Illinois’ newly created medical cannabis industry, positioning Castro at the forefront of a market that would eventually become one of the largest cannabis industries in the country.
What began with one Chicago clinic expanded to Highland Park and Flossmoor, ultimately becoming a three-location patient advocacy organization serving people from communities throughout Illinois.
Over the years, The Healing Clinic served and certified more than 10,000 patients.
They included people facing terminal illnesses and serious medical conditions, parents advocating for sick children, families searching for additional treatment options, and people simply trying to understand whether medical cannabis might offer them another way to feel better or improve their quality of life.
For Castro, those patients were never simply numbers on an application or rows on a spreadsheet. They were people she had agreed to care about. And helping them find a way forward became deeply personal.
That philosophy became central to The Healing Clinic’s identity and to Feliza Castro’s approach to entrepreneurship: identify the place where a complicated system fails the people it is meant to serve, and build a bridge between the two.
Her work quickly moved beyond the walls of the clinics.
Castro traveled throughout Illinois educating patients, families, professionals and communities about the state’s medical cannabis program. Through seminars, public advocacy, media appearances and direct patient outreach, she helped explain who qualified, how the program worked and how patients could actually gain access.
She also recruited and employed physicians willing to participate in a newly emerging area of medicine, created jobs for patient advocates and other professionals, and developed a clinic model that brought education, certification and state-application assistance together in one place.
The Healing Clinic’s influence extended beyond patient advocacy.
Every patient successfully brought into Illinois’ medical cannabis program became part of the foundation of a newly created and highly restricted marketplace. Before dispensaries could thrive and cultivators could scale, Illinois needed qualified patients.
The Healing Clinic helped build that patient population. By educating, certifying and guiding thousands of Illinois residents through the registration process, Castro helped create the demand that allowed the state’s newly licensed dispensaries and cultivators to establish themselves, grow and succeed.
Castro worked on both sides of a developing industry at once: expanding patient access while helping build the customer base upon which Illinois’ emerging cannabis marketplace depended.
The Healing Clinic began in Chicago and later expanded to Highland Park and Flossmoor, but its reach was statewide. Patients traveled from across Illinois to visit the clinics. Feliza Castro traveled across Illinois to reach them.
And as the industry matured, so did her role within it.
After years spent helping build the medical side of the Illinois medical marijuana market, Feliza Castro moved into Illinois’ adult-use cannabis industry. Castro participated in the launch and operation of three licensed Illinois dispensaries and continued her work in brand development, strategy and creative leadership.
What began as one 25-year-old single mother recognizing a problem no one had yet solved became something much larger.
Three clinics, a valuable, statewide resource for suffering people in Illinois, a patient population that helped support an emerging commercial market, and ultimately, a role in building an entirely new industry in Illinois.
Feliza Castro did not enter Illinois cannabis after the industry had been built. She was there when there was almost nothing to enter, and helped build what came next.
FELIZA CASTRO TODAY
The Healing Clinic was not the end of Castro’s work in cannabis. It became the foundation for what came next.
Today, Feliza Castro serves as Chief Creative Officer of Green Rose Brands, where she brings more than a decade of cannabis-industry knowledge to creative direction, brand development, customer experience and the continued growth of three Illinois dispensaries.
Having created The Healing Clinic on her own and helped shape patient access during the earliest days of Illinois’ medical cannabis program, Feliza speaks about the industry with the authority of someone who was there. Today, she uses that knowledge not only within cannabis, but also to guide founders in other fields. Those who are creating something original, navigating uncertainty or entering an emerging and highly regulated industry.
What excites Feliza most at this stage of her career is helping other people bring their ideas to life. Through brand consulting and entrepreneurial mentorship, she works with up-and-coming entrepreneurs who need help getting started and established founders who are ready for a fresh direction. She helps clients strengthen their ideas, communicate what makes them different and turn their vision into a profitable business with room to grow.
Feliza also understands that even the best idea can stall without organization. Her founder-development program combines creative and business guidance with practical planning, clear priorities, useful systems and personal accountability. It is designed for people who want to become more independent, take control of their goals and create a successful brand without becoming overwhelmed by the process.
She also offers select educational seminars and speaking engagements on cannabis, resilience and entrepreneurship. Cannabis remains a central area of expertise, but her lessons about taking risks, recovering from setbacks and creating opportunity apply across industries. Speaking complements her client work, while helping people grow and succeed remains her primary focus.
Beyond her professional work, Feliza is a devoted mother and wife who remains intentional about protecting meaningful time with her family. Her family remains an enduring source of perspective, purpose and joy. She also enjoys independent writing, practicing dance, creating visual art and music, which allow her to express herself creatively and stay connected to the things she loves.
Because Feliza accepts a limited number of private bookings each year, prospective clients are encouraged to reserve their time with her at least two weeks in advance.