It was the summer after ALEXA I. CANADY, ’71, MD’75, HDSC’24, completed second grade. Canady wanted to spend time with her grandmother, who was a professor at Lane College in Tennessee, but had traveled to their home near Lansing, Mich., to both visit the family and take a course in aptitude testing. When one of her grandmother’s assignments called for a subject to take a test, Canady volunteered, and the course professor wanted to see more. This ultimately uncovered that Canady’s school teacher was switching her excellent test scores with the lesser scores of a white student. The teacher was fired, Canady skipped the third grade, and a new confidence powered her through the rest of her life. Canady’s path led to her becoming the first female African American neurosurgeon in the U.S. Her career included serving as chief of neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
For a list of other notable U-M grads, visit alumni.umich.edu/notable-alumni.
