[1] Norman grew up on the south side of Chicago, Illinois where she developed a love of astronomy, influenced by her mother, who was a fan of science fiction and the United States Space program.

[5] While presenting her research at the 1992 American Astronomical Society meeting, she met Bruce Margon, the chairman of the University of Washington's Astronomy department where she had recently applied to attend graduate school.

[9][10] In that role, she worked to understand how observed galaxies are magnified by gravitational lensing and how this so-called "magnification bias" affects our view of the universe.

[11][12] Norman is now an associate scientist and the deputy director of the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC) at the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), which operates NOAO as of October 1, 2019.

Her research interests have evolved to focus on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), which are compact regions at the center of galaxies that are thought to be powered by supermassive black holes.

[11] In order to address the latter, she and her colleagues have advocated for making coding and development training widely available across the astronomy and astrophysics workforce, regardless of academic affiliation or career stage.