Suki Norris brings more than 30 years of experience as a healthcare thought leader and public health analyst to the OPEN MINDS team. Her professional journey has been dedicated to addressing challenges related to healthcare and equity. Ms. Norris’ background spans both non-profit and for-profit sectors. Her written work and public speaking have sparked interest and dialogue in the recently critical areas of social determinants of health, the needs of SMI and SED populations, and healthcare legislation.

Ms. Norris was most recently a Healthcare Consultant with Blu Omega, an IT services firm based in Washington, D.C. In this role, she worked on Optum/Lewin teams, providing data analytics support for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center (CMMI)-related contracts. She also provided research on various CMMI contracts, including Guiding and Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) and States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development (AHEAD). Ms. Norris developed Source of Truth datasets to track GUIDE payments for project initiation and respite payments. 

Prior to Blu Omega, Ms. Norris was a Senior Analyst at Rainmakers Strategic Solutions, a consulting services company. Here she led a team of data analysts working on government contracts, providing data analyst support using SAS, creating dashboards, and statistical analysis.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Norris was a Senior Knowledge Engineer for The Echo Group, a company that designs software for behavioral health organizations. In this position, Ms. Norris worked on grant-funded behavioral health projects for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She also provided analysis of public health issues using large medical data sets and public data sets, including Medicare claims data, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Ms. Norris has done writing, webinars and live presentations on a variety of topics, including: the failure of quality measures to address the reality of behavioral health clients; treating for outcomes or better care, understanding the Excellence in Mental Health Act; the challenge of value-based payment in the behavioral health world; social determinants of health; the opportunity of CCBHCs, and artificial intelligence in behavioral health.

Ms. Norris practiced healthcare law prior to joining the Echo Group.

Ms. Norris has a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Golden Gate University, a Master of Public Health from Tufts University, a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Mills College.