ALEXA CANADY (1950– ) became, at age thirty, the first African American woman neurosurgeon in the United States. She earned her M.D. degree cum laude from the University of Michigan, with a specialty in pediatric neurosurgery. Since being certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery in 1984, she has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Currently, she is director of neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital of Detroit and clinical associate professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.