Deborah Norris

I received a Bachelor of Home Economics in Family Studies from Mount Saint Vincent University, a Master in Science in Family Life Education from the University of Alberta, and a PhD in Educational Foundations from Dalhousie University.

Research and professional activity with military and Veteran families has been my main focus over the course of my career. Informed by ecological theory and critical theory, I am dedicated to advancing knowledge about the cycle of deployment, military-to-civilian-transition, the impacts of operational stress injuries, and military and Veteran family resilience(y), largely from the standpoints of the families of serving members and Veterans. Recently, my military/Veteran research program has expanded to include an emphasis on the impacts of operational stress on the families of public service personnel (law enforcement officers, paramedics, firefighters). This research and professional activity is applied, collaborative, and interdisciplinary.

Family violence research and practice is also an interest, as reflected in my recent involvement with the Gendered Violence Prevention Network, a collaboration between Mount Saint Vincent University and the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women. In collaboration with Dr. Diane Crocker at Saint Mary’s University and the Be the Peace Institute, I am a co-investigator on study investigating the meaning of justice for women who have experienced gender-based based violence, identifying implications for system change.