Meet Dr. Rolfes

During his studies at The Chicago Medical School, Dr. Rolfes searched for ways to combine his passions for medicine and engineering. He applied for and was selected to join the Medical Device Center’s Innovation Fellows program at the University of Minnesota. He spent a year working with a team of engineers to develop solutions to unmet medical needs. After that, he did an intensive five year surgical residency in Head and Neck Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He went on to a Facial Plastic Reconstructive Surgery fellowship at Boston University, the only training program in the country focused on facial feminization surgery.After a decade of medical training, Dr. Rolfes looked to return to Minnesota, where he and his wife are both from. He intended to join an academic center, but found that it would be challenging to create the type of center he had envisioned. He ended up opening his own private practice to be able to focus on the procedures, research, and development that he wanted to perform.

Despite operating a busy surgical practice, Dr. Rolfes has continued to innovate and create several new tools and procedures. He has been awarded five patents for novel medical devices. He is triple board-certified and was the recipient of the William K. Miles, MD Award for achieving the highest score in the nation on the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery exam. He has been nationally recognized as a Top Doctor for his commitment to patient safety and comfort, and he has been featured numerous times in Delta Sky Magazine. Dr. Rolfes is also a two-time inductee of Mpls. St.Paul’s Top Doctors Rising Stars list. He specializes in gender-confirming surgery for transgender patients, and he is a national leader in Facial Feminization Surgery. Dr. Rolfes is also a strong advocate for the advancement of gender-affirming policies within institutions, insurance coverage, and state and federal legislative bodies.

When not in the clinic or operating room, Dr. Rolfes likes to spend as much time as he can in the great outdoors with his wife, Chela, and their two kids. They love to bike, fish, and kayak in the summer, and the winters are filled with XC skiing, fort building, and snowball fights.