Dr. Alexa Irene Canady is the first African American woman in the United States to become a neurosurgeon, at the age of 31 in 1981. To read more about Dr. Canady's inspirational career, please click here https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/aframsurgeons/canady.html

Billie Gordon, Ph.D.

Billi Gordon may just be the most unique neuroscientist on this list. After a career as an actor, television writer, and the most successful greeting card model of all time, Gordon returned to University of Michigan to complete his education and establish himself as a major player in the field of neurology. Gordon is now best known for his work on the pathophysiology of stress as antecedent to obesity-related disease. Having himself achieved dramatic weight loss (for which he was profiled in a 2009 Los Angeles Times article), Gordon is now a researcher at the UCLA Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for the Neurobiology of Stress.