Alexa Irene Canady (born November 7, 1950) is a retired American medical doctor specializing in pediatric neurosurgery.

Her parents attended Fisk University, where they met and later married on her mother's 19th birthday right before her father's deployment during World War II.

[5] Canady's parents taught her about the importance of education and hard work as a child, which would ultimately help her graduate from high school with honors.

Her mother being a former President of Delta Sigma Theta and her father a dentist, she was taught the importance of education from an early age.

However, despite these obstacles, Canady stood out among her peers academically, both in the classroom and by earning high scores on her tests in school.

Although she initially had an interest in internal medicine, Canady decided on neurosurgery after falling in love with neurology during her first two years of medical school.

[6] Knowing that gaining a residency as a black student would be difficult, Canady began building her résumé, reading many articles and attending every conference and seminar she could, sometimes asking questions just to get known in the small field.

[6] Although she has stated that she was not focused on the history she was making, after moving to Pensacola, Florida in 2001, she realized the significance of her accomplishments and what it meant for other African-Americans and women in medicine.

During her time as Chief, she specialized in congenital spinal abnormalities, hydrocephalus, head trauma and brain tumors.

While initially she was worried about how she would be received by her peers, she quickly gained admiration for being a patient-care focused surgeon.

[15] Canady not only persevered despite the various biases against her as a minority, but embraced her experiences as a minority- using them to guide her view of health as socially determinant while empathizing with patients from diverse backgrounds.

From 2001 to her retirement in 2012, Canady worked as a part-time surgeon and consultant at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Fl.

However, after meeting local doctors and realizing the need for a pediatric neurosurgeon in the area, Canady decided to join the staff at Sacred Heart Hospital, working part-time.

[17][18] In a recent interview on why she thinks students should choose neurosurgery she states, "It's intellectually challenging, you get kind of a high when everybody says 'ah, the neurosurgeon is here'".

[1] Canady was also featured in a Nickelodeon Black History Month short animation that aired in February 2015 to celebrate her achievement of being the first African-American woman to become a neurosurgeon.