17 Black innovators who made medtech better

4. Alexa Canady

Alexa Canady became the first female African-American neurosurgeon in the U.S. in 1981. She was specialized in pediatric neurosurgery and was chief of neurosurgery at the Children’s Hospital in Michigan from 1987 until 2001 when she moved to Florida.

Canady received her bachelor degree in zoology from the University of Michigan in 1971, according to a Wikipedia article about her. She received her MD in 1975 from the University of Michigan Medical School. Canady became a surgical intern at the Yale-New Haven Hospital from 1975 to 1976. She later went on to become the first female African-American neurosurgery resident in the U.S. at the University of Minnesota.

Her specialties include congenital spinal abnormalities, hydrocephalus, trauma and brain tumors.

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