Recognized for work on brain development in premature babies, early detection of risk of psychiatric illness in toddlers and preschoolers
By Shawn Ballard
Cynthia E. Rogers, MD, a leading researcher in social, emotional and brain development in infants and children, and a clinical innovator in evaluating the earliest risks of psychiatric illness in toddlers and preschoolers, was installed as the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Child Psychiatry at WashU Medicine.
Rogers, the vice-chair and director of the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, was installed by David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of WashU Medicine.
Rogers’ research focuses on brain development in infants and children. She co-directs the WashU Neonatal Development Research (WUNDER) Lab and seeks to understand how experiences in early life impact brain development and behavior. She has conducted brain-imaging studies to uncover critical periods before and after birth when brain structure and function can be influenced by environmental factors, ultimately leading to psychiatric and intellectual disorders such as depression and autism.
In clinical applications, Rogers aims to understand underlying mechanisms behind psychiatric disorders in perinatal and child populations and develop prevention strategies that address the early factors affecting mental health.
As vice-chair and director of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Rogers oversees the missions of teaching, clinical care and research for child and adolescent populations in the Department of Psychiatry. Additionally, she serves as co-executive director of the WashU Medicine Hermann Center for Child and Family Development and associate director of the Healthy Brain and Child Development national consortium study. She also established and co-directs the Perinatal Behavioral Health Service, which provides comprehensive mental health and substance use treatment for patients during pregnancy and the postpartum period.
“Dr. Rogers is a renowned leader in the study of infant and child brain development and how it is influenced by factors such as poverty and mental illness in the family,” said Eric J. Lenze, MD, the Wallace and Lucille K. Renard Professor and head of the Department of Psychiatry. “She also is an outstanding clinical leader who created innovative services that help thousands of families in St. Louis.”
Rogers received the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s Joel Elkes Research Award in 2025, she won the National Institute of Mental Health Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award in 2023, and she was named an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Scholar by the National Academy of Medicine in 2022. She has been selected twice, in 2014 and 2018, to receive the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry’s Outstanding Mentor Award. She also, in 2012 and 2019, received the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Award for Research in Depression or Suicide. In 2019, she received the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund Dr. John M. Anderson Excellence in Mental Health Award.
She serves on the editorial boards of Biological Psychiatry and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and as deputy editor of the latter. She is actively involved in several professional societies, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the FLUX Society and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Rogers earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1998 from Harvard University. She worked as a research assistant in a post-traumatic stress disorder program in San Francisco before enrolling at WashU Medicine, where she earned her medical degree in 2005. She completed her general psychiatry residency and child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at WashU Medicine/Barnes-Jewish Hospital/St. Louis Children’s Hospital Consortium before joining the WashU Medicine Department of Psychiatry faculty in 2010.
About Blanche F. Ittleson
Gifts from Blanche F. Ittleson and the Ittleson Family Foundation established the Ittleson Professorship in 1956. Blanche Ittleson was the widow of Henry Ittleson, the founder of the C.I.T. Financial Corporation, who established the family foundation in New York in 1932.
Blanche Ittleson served as a trustee of the foundation for many years before her death in 1975. Her interest in the mental health of children led to the decision to fund the professorship in her name, with the stipulation that the faculty member should be qualified and authorized to develop a strong program in child psychiatry. It was believed to be the first endowed professorship in psychiatry in the country.
In 1965, Washington University awarded Ittleson an honorary doctor of humanities.
In addition to mental health, the Ittleson Foundation supports AIDS prevention and environmental projects.