She returned to Washington University School of Medicine the following year and was promoted to assistant professor by Robert J. Terry, the head of the Department of Anatomy. Four years later she received tenure and became an associate professor. In 1946, after complaining to the head of the Anatomy Department, E.V. Cowdry, and being evaluated by a committee,[1] Trotter was finally promoted to full professor of Gross Anatomy, becoming the first woman to hold that rank at Washington University.[2]