I’m Cameron Norman, the founder of Cense. Welcome.
I’ve spent over two decades working at the intersection of health, design, and complexity — and what connects it all is a fascination with the problems that resist easy answers and the organizations trying to solve them. I love innovation — that creative spirit that connects people’s passion to the problems they wish to solve, the impetus to build things to address those problems and serve people by doing it.
I started this work as a psychologist and researcher, drawn to questions about how people and systems change. Over time, that drew me to design — learning how to build things to facilitate change — and into complexity science, which gave me a language for why health and human services are so hard to get right, and why the standard approaches so often fall short.
Motivation
What draws me to health and human services is deeper than professional interest.
At its best, work to promote, protect, treat, and enable health connects us to what it means to be alive. It’s a tremendous act of generosity of spirit and kindness that health service brings. When we connect to that, we’re at our best. It enlivens us, nourishes us, and brings so much benefit to those we serve. It’s for that reason that it’s such a tragedy when the complexity, bureaucracy, pace, and intensity of the work is so insidious in dampening these benefits.
Health leadership can be one of the most rewarding, creative, and stimulating experiences if designed well. I want to bring out the best in people, protect them as much as possible from the worst of what is foisted upon us, and reconnect people to that sense of purpose, passion, and creativity that probably led them to their roles in the first place.
Education & Experience
I founded Cense in 2005, while I was completing a post-doctoral training in complex systems and health. From then on, I have been building a practice and methodology — shaped by my work as a practitioner, as an educator, and as a researcher.
My training spans psychology, public health, and design. I hold a PhD in Public Health Sciences from the University of Toronto and a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University — a combination that’s unusual enough to be a great asset in the work I do. I’m an Adjunct Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, an Adjunct Faculty Fellow at York University’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, and an active member of the faculty and Adjunct Professor in the Design for Health and Strategic Foresight & Innovation graduate programs at OCAD University.
My work has produced tools in active use — the eHealth Literacy Scale, now translated into more than 40 languages and used in research worldwide, and the Design-Driven Evaluation model, which informs how I approach evaluation and learning with every client. I’m also a Credentialed Evaluator with the Canadian Evaluation Society.
Outside of my work, I’m a photographer, a writer, and an enthusiastic participant in café culture — which is a polite way of saying I do some of my best thinking over a good coffee in a place with a notebook, pen, and interesting people nearby.
If you’re working on something that matters and looking for someone who will take it as seriously as you do, I’d like to hear about it.
Cameron Norman is a professional member of the Canadian Psychological Association, Canadian Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology, the American Evaluation Association and is a Credentialed Evaluator (CE) and active member of the Canadian Evaluation Society. He is also a member of the Canadian Public Health Association (where he is a former award winner) and the Ontario Public Health Association.
Cameron continues to support the Systemic Design Association as an active professional member and conference moderator.
Cameron’s current CV can be downloaded here.
