Dr. Alexa Canady is a retired MD specializing in pediatric neurosurgery. She was the first African American woman to achieve this specific specialization.

When Alexa was young, her family received reports from the school indicating that she was of average intelligence. However, when a family member gave her an intelligence test, she scored highly. Upon investigation, they discovered that her teacher had been swapping her test results with those of a white student, not wanting anyone to learn that Alexa was smart.

Despite this blatant racism, Alexa made her intellectual abilities known. She pursued excellence in her passions and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1975. Against her advisor’s recommendations, she chose to specialize in neurology because she fell in love with the field. Despite facing continued prejudice and discrimination, she worked her way up in the field. In 1987, she became the chief of neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital in Michigan, where she served until her full retirement in 2012. She was known for her genuine care for patients and once said, "It's fun to make people better."