Dr. Norris attended Cornell University, and received his medical degree from Howard University in Washington, DC, where he completed a residency in internal medicine and was Chief Resident.  He was a Research Fellow in Nephrology in the Department of Medicine of the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles. Currently, he is a postdoctoral candidate in metaphysics, spirituality, and holistic health.
 
Dr. Norris was elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha, Medical Honor Society in 1980 and inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame (Science) in 2003. Board certified by the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Nephrology, Dr. Norris is also certified as a Specialist in Clinical Hypertension by the American Society of Hypertension. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Nephrology. He is a member of the American Association of Kidney Patients Medical Advisory Board and the National Kidney Foundation - Kidney Early Evaluation Program executive committee. He also serves as a member of the National Institutes of Health Study Sections (NCRR & NIDDK) and the NIH-NCRR Clinical Research Working Group.
 
Dr. Norris’ research focuses on the prevention and early treatment of chronic kidney disease, with an emphasis on community based approaches to improving outcomes for minority populations. Specifically, his interests include the role of vitamin D in chronic kidney disease, hypertension and disparities in chronic kidney disease. He is currently a principal investigator on 4 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and co-investigator on several others.
 
In addition to serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ethnicity & Disease , Dr. Norris is also a reviewer for numerous journals and has written extensively for a wide variety of medical journals, textbooks, and consumer magazines with over 150 peer-reviewed publications. Presently, he serves on the Committee for Kidney Health In Disadvantaged Populations (CKHDP) under the Committee for the Global Advancement of Nephrology of the International Society for Nephrology. CKHDP promotes innovate strategies to improve the health of disadvantaged communities that suffer disproportionately from chronic kidney disease and its complications, with an emphasis on indigenous populations. In January 2009 he was selected as one of twenty-five Ambassadors for Research!America’s Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research.