“The greatest challenge I faced in becoming a neurosurgeon was believing it was possible”
– Dr Alexa Canady, MD
Although Alexa Canady originally graduated from University with a degree in zoology, it was whilst engaging in a summer program in genetics for minority students that she developed her passion for medicine. Subsequently graduating cum laude from the University of Michigan’s College of Medicine, Alexa Canady’s original goal was to practice as an internist; however, she became fascinated by neurosurgery early on in her medical studies. Finding tertiary educators no different to the students and teachers at her former school in which she and her brother were the only two Black students, she was discouraged from pursuing her chosen specialisation by multiple advisors and was met with resistance in obtaining an internship.
Nevertheless, she persisted.
Eventually accepted as a surgical intern by Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1975, Alexa Canady became both the first woman and first African American to be enrolled in a neurosurgery program and following her residency in neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota, became the first female, African American neurosurgeon in the United States. Upon completion of her fellowship in paediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and time within the Neurosurgery Department at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital, at just 36 years of age Alexa Canady became the first African American Chief of Neurosurgery at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
A member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the Society of Paediatric Neurosurgery, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the American College of Neurosurgery, in 1989 Alexa Canady was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. Further recognition included the American Medical Women’s Association President’s Award in 1993 and the Distinguished Service Award from Wayne State University Medical School in 1994.
Dedicated to the young lives she touched, after her retirement in 2001 she found there were no paediatric neurosurgeons in her new community and came out of retirement to practice part-time at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. Now retired once again, Dr Canady strongly advocates for young women to pursue careers in medicine and neurosurgery.
