Faculty & Staff

Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanvnorris/

Appointment

Instructor, College of Graduate Studies

Biography

I am an Instructor in the College of Graduate Studies, where I serve as a COGS Fellow focused on curriculum development for the Master of Science in Mental Health Practice (MS-MHP) program. The MS-MHP is a graduate degree designed to train clinicians to provide mental health and addiction treatment in integrated care settings.

I earned my M.D. in 2026 and hold a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Religion with a minor in Creative Nonfiction from Cleveland State University. My academic interests center on narrative competency, structural competency, the philosophy of psychiatry, and medical ethics. I am a member of esteemed organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, Ohio Psychiatric Physicians Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Association for Social Psychiatry, and the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry.

Research interests

My work centers on medical education, curriculum development, and the intersection of psychiatry, ethics, and narrative medicine. My primary focus is developing evidence-based curricula for mental health professional education, with particular attention to integrated care models and collaborative practice.

My scholarly interests include the philosophy of psychiatry, particularly the conceptual foundations of psychiatric diagnosis, the nature of mental illness, and the ethical dimensions of psychiatric practice. My thesis integrates narrative psychiatry and philosophy within mental health training. I am interested in narrative competency and how attending to patients’ illness narratives can improve clinical understanding and therapeutic relationships. My work also engages structural competency frameworks, examining how social, economic, and political systems shape mental health outcomes and access to care.

Education

M.D., Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, 2026

M.A., Medical Ethics and Humanities, Northeast Ohio Medical University, in progress (expected 2027)

B.A., Comparative Religion (minor: Creative Nonfiction), Cleveland State University, 2016

Award

Silver Health, Education, Advocacy and Leadership (HEAL) Badge, Urban Primary Care Practice (2026)