Who We Are
Dr. Sol Mundinger
Gerhard S. (“Sol”) Mundinger, M.D., M.B.A., is a board-certified plastic surgeon with many years of experience and training in both plastic surgery, microsurgery, craniofacial surgery, and all transgender surgical procedures.
For 5 years, he was the Director of Plastic Surgery and the Craniofacial Center Director at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, and Associate Plastic Surgery Residency Director at LSUHSC in New Orleans. During this time he was promoted to Associate Professor of both Plastic Surgery and Anatomy at Louisiana State University. He founded the NOLA Transgender Institute in 2018 to help improve access to experienced, quality care for transgender patients in New Orleans and the Gulf South.
In 2021, he transitioned his practice to Austin, Texas with the Crane Center to focus on facial feminization and masculinization surgery in addition to chest and bottom surgery for transgender patients. He is a member of the World Professional Organization for Transgender Health (WPATH). Schedule a one-on-one consultation to learn more about gender affirming surgical procedures.
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Institute Partners
Dr. Cooper Benson's New Orleans-based clinical practice focuses on reconstructive urology as well as general urology, in addition to his interest Gender Affirmation Surgery. At Columbia, Dr. Benson completed a fellowship in genitourinary reconstructive surgery with the world-renowned Dr. Steven B. Brandes. Dr. Benson developed extensive experience in the treatment of complex urethral stricture disease, ureteral strictures management, male incontinence, genital reconstruction, urinary fistulae, urinary diversion, neurogenic bladder and transitional urology.
Dr. Benson is licensed in the state of Louisiana, where he is an Assistant Professor at Tulane University School of Medicine in the Department of Urology and a member of the staff at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, University Medical Center. His office is located Uptown across from Touro Infirmary. He lives and works in the Gulf South region, and seeks to provide patients access to specialized reconstructive urologic care. ​
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He is a member of the American Urologic Association and the Society of Genitourinary Reconstructive Surgeons. Contact Dr. Benson
Dr. Cooper Benson
Alexandra DiGrado
Dr. Alexandra DiGrado PT, DPT, PRPC is a licensed physical therapist with advanced training and certification in pelvic floor rehabilitation through Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute. She has the distinction of holding the Pelvic Rehabilitation Practitioner Certification designating her as an expert in the field of pelvic rehabilitation. Alex received both her doctorate degree in Physical Therapy and her undergraduate degree in Rehabilitation Science from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. She has honed her skills as a pelvic floor specialist working at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Touro Infirmary in New Orleans.
Alex specializes in pelvic floor physical therapy treatment for patients who are; pregnant and post-partum, experiencing menopause, prostate cancer, and other urogynecological cancers; and patients of all gender expressions with bowel, bladder, and sexual dysfunction across all age groups. While living in New Orleans, she was a dedicated partner of the NOLA Transgender Institute, working with patients undergoing gender affirmation surgery. She is proud to serve the LGBTQIA community. Alex is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and Women’s Health Section of the APTA.
Amanda Fitzgerald
Amanda Fitzgerald received her Doctorate degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2017. She is a certified pilates instructor and has completed continuing education through Herman and Wallace Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation Institute including Pelvic Floor level one and level two courses, and Pilates for the Pelvic Floor. She is a member of the APTA and a member of the APTA’s Section of Women’s Health. She is conversational in Spanish and treats all gender identities. She started at Touro mid-2018.
Dr. Ryan H. Pasternak
With more than 15 years of experience, Dr. Pasternak is board-certified in Adolescent Medicine and Pediatrics, specializing in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s Hospital, New Orleans. He received his medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, and completed his residency training at LSU Health New Orleans followed by a fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.
“It is invigorating to work with adolescent patients and their families and assist them in maximizing their health trajectories. The practice of Adolescent Medicine as a specialty allows me to focus on critical areas of health for young persons: reproductive and sexual health, gender affirming care, sports health, infectious disease and behavioral health care.” Contact Dr. Pasternak.
Dr. Omer Raheem
During his fellowship training, Dr. Raheem developed a special interest focusing on the fertility and reproductive and sexual health of transgender patients and couples. He believes in a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to evaluate and treat complex medical or surgical conditions that transgender patients may develop. He joins the NOLA Transgender Surgery Institute in their valued mission to establish a comprehensive care for the whole transgender community.
Since moving to New Orleans, Louisiana, Dr. Raheem’s goal is to integrate the most advanced and minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment modalities into his practice, including advanced fertility treatment, microsurgical technique for sperm retrieval, sperm cryopreservation, and complex penile and prosthetics reconstruction.
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Dr. Omer Raheem is a fellowship-trained urologist and assistant professor of urology at Tulane University School of Medicine, Department of Urology, and its affiliated teaching hospitals and clinics. He completed his urology residency at the University of California, San Diego and his fellowship at the University of Washington, Department of Urology, specializing in reproductive health, fertility, sexual medicine, and prosthetics surgery. Prior to his training in the USA, Dr. Raheem was awarded membership to the Royal College of Surgeons in the United Kingdom and Ireland following the completion of his Basic Surgical Training. he is licensed in the state of Louisiana and has multiple clinics in Greater New Orleans, including Tulane Medical Center, Tulane Lakeside, Touro Infirmary, and University Medical Center. Contact Dr. Raheem.
Dr. Jessica Shank
A native of Louisiana, Dr. Jessica Shank recently moved back to New Orleans in the summer of 2018 and is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Tulane School of Medicine. She is board certified in Gynecologic Oncology and Obstetrics & Gynecology and specializes in female pelvic cancers. She performs radical surgery utilizing the latest minimally invasive techniques to include robotic, laparoscopic and laser surgery. She has an extensive background in transgender care that started when she was the Obstetrics & Gynecology Consultant for the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Medicine Transgender Working Group from 2014 to 2016 where she helped develop treatment timelines and cost analyses to assess the impact of gender transition on military service.
After former Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced the military’s open transgender service policy in 2016, she served as the Obstetrics & Gynecology Consultant for the Navy Medicine West Regional Transgender Care Team from 2016 to 2018. In this capacity, she helped create transition-related care plans for approximately 200 active duty transgender service members in the Navy and Marine Corps. She personally performed fertility counseling for approximately 95% of the transgender men and performed gender confirming surgery (laparoscopic hysterectomy with bilateral oophorectomy) when they had completed 12 months of cross sex hormone therapy. Read more about Dr. Shank. Contact Dr. Shank.
CrescentCare
CrescentCare has been providing indiscriminate quality healthcare to patients in Louisiana for over 30 years, with the ideology that every person has the right to have their rights respected, without regard to race, creed, color, age, sex, gender, gender identity, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, religion, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental handicap (including substance abuse), immigration status, unfavorable military discharge, membership in an activist organization, HIV infection or any basis prohibited by law. Connect with the CrescentCare team.
