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Logos: More than Meets the Eye

By Roger Larson, CAE | Executive Director

Roger Larson, CAE | Executive Director
Roger Larson, CAE
Executive Director

Bruce Cohen, in his Letter from the President, focused on what has so far, and will continue to be the dominant theme for the CNS in 2022: “Change”. Chief among the many changes in 2022 he references are:

  • A new clinical journal (Annals of the Child Neurology Society)
  • New resources, including a redesigned website featuring a new Craft section
  • New committee assignments and creation of a wholly new committee (Leadership, Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity)
  • A new Executive Director
  • A new, comprehensive workforce survey, the first in 20 years

In addition to these, there are also two exciting new developments for younger CNS members to be mindful of:

  • Five new Special Interest Groups launched in the last year: Fetal Neurology, Functional Neurological Disorders, Global Health, Neuromodulation, Neuro-Palliative Care
  • Junior and Early-career Development Initiative (JEDI): Spearheaded by Alexander Li Cohen and Ariel Lyons Warren, this “next-gen neurologist” Special Interest Group will offer an extensive array of “Lobby Talks” throughout the CNS Annual Meeting in Cincinnati. Originally launched in response to an invitation from ICNA to collaborate with its highly active and engaged “Future Leaders of ICNA” group, this initiative will hold its first organizational meeting on Friday afternoon in Cincinnati. All med students, residents, fellows, and early career child neurologists are invited to join (roughly anyone <10 years out of training).

Ironically, the very thing that seems oldest, most familiar, and seemingly changeless about the CNS – its annual meeting – is itself the scene and inspiration for change: its perennially, paradoxically new venues, awards, CME content, exhibitors and acquaintances (many of whom seem oddly old and familiar, thanks to Zoom).


“CNS in the past 10 years has become: not a remote, abstract association that primarily becomes real, embodied and useful to most members once a year, but a living, breathing gathering spot where a uniquely connected and committed community of child neurologists can share resources and wisdom year-round.”

Roger Larson, CAE


The 2021 meeting logo for Boston was just that: a logo that was really focused more on the milestone 50th annual meeting than on the 50th full year of CNS history to follow. The opposite is true this year. Sure, October 12-15 in Cincinnati is when and where “the next 50 years begins”. But just as in real life a tree doesn’t suddenly spring up full-grown, then disappear four days later, the tree in the 51st Annual Meeting logo is less a snapshot in time than it is a study in time. It performs well as a logo, offering at a glance all the basic information needed to attend the 51st Annual Meeting. But it also serves to suggest something larger and deeper and more lasting, something that has already been in the works well before the meeting, and something that will continue to be worked on and worked out long after the meeting ends.

The colorful graphic of a young, still growing tree implicitly rooted in the past, arcing gracefully toward sunlight and a bright future, and providing a broad, vibrantly-colored canopy under which people can gather in the present is more in keeping with what the CNS in the past 10 years has become: not a remote, abstract association that primarily becomes real, embodied and useful to most members once a year, but a living, breathing gathering spot where a uniquely connected and committed community of child neurologists can share resources and wisdom year-round.

Beginning with this issue of CNS Connections, members will notice a new “look” with visual links to the CNS website. The bright splash of colored leaves featured in this year’s meeting logo match the five colors used to structure the CNS website sections, which match the five colors used to organize CNS Connections, “Bringing CNS Members Together to Make Children’s Lives Better”: 

  1. Colleagues
  2. Career
  3. Craft
  4. Calling
  5. Community

Those five elements correspond to the bedrock resources, values and meaning members look to their professional societies to supply, reflect and reinforce. To explore this notion further, go to pages 34 for a mini-tour of all the features available on the CNS website.