 My name is Alyssa Golas and I am the Director of Reconstructive Surgery at Hackensack Meridian JFK University Medical Center. I really have two areas that I focus in. The first is breast reconstruction for patients who have breast cancer, and the second is gender-affirming surgery for transgender and gender non-binary patients. With plastic surgery, every patient's different, every wound is different, every need is different, so it requires a lot of creativity and a lot of problem-solving and also a lot of getting to know patients. Every patient is individual and it's really important to talk to patients and figure out what their goals are because they may not be necessarily what I think they are. I really think it's important to spend time with them and make sure that everybody's on the same page. The patients put so much trust into you to let us take care of them, let us operate on them. That's an incredible amount of trust. I like patients to feel safe and comfortable with me. I want them to know what to expect. One of the scariest parts about being a patient is not knowing what's going to happen, so I'd like to really be clear about the process so they know what's going to happen. I think that's really helpful. Going through an illness or an injury can be a really scary and upsetting process and it can be difficult for patients to see themselves at the end of it of how they're going to feel, what they're going to look like, what their life's going to be like. So I have the opportunity to help them through that process and to help them feel whole and feel like themselves again.