Background
Alexa Irene Canady was born in Lansing, Michigan to Elizabeth Hortense (Golden) Canady (former national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority) and Doctor Clinton Canady, Junior., a dentist.
Alexa Irene Canady was born in Lansing, Michigan to Elizabeth Hortense (Golden) Canady (former national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority) and Doctor Clinton Canady, Junior., a dentist.
Doctor Canady attended the University of Michigan where she received her Bachelor of Surgery degree in zoology in 1971 and pledged Delta Sigma Theta.
She received exceptionally high scores on standardized tests in gade school. Scores that greatly surpassed her peers. She later received her Doctor of Medicine with cum laude honors from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1975.
She then became a surgical intern at the Yale-New Haven Hospital from 1975-1976, rotating under Doctor William F. Collins.
Going on to become the first African American woman neurosurgery resident in the United States at the University of Minnesota. Career and She became Chief of Neurosurgery at the Children"s Hospital of Michigan in 1987 and held the position until her retirement in 2001.
During her time as Chief, she specialized in congenital spinal abnormalities, hydrocephalus, trauma and brain tumors. Canady was inducted into the Michigan Women"s Hall of Fame in 1989.
In 1984 she was named Teacher of the Year by Children"s Hospital of Michigan.
She has also been awarded three honorary degrees – doctor of humane letters honorary degrees from the University of Detroit-Mercy in 1997 and Roosevelt University in 2014, and a doctor of science from the University of Southern Connecticut in 1999.
She is a member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Society of Pediatric Neurosurgery, and the American college of Neurosurgery.