Ideagen Radio
Ideagen Radio
Dr. Charles Williams: The Future of Health Ep. 8
What does it take to build health systems that actually serve people where they work—and hold up under real pressure? We invited Dr. Charles Williams, Chief Medical Officer for Global Medical Services at Lockheed Martin, to unpack how corporate health, public service, and cutting-edge technology come together to protect and empower large workforces.
We start by redefining future-ready health leadership. Charles explains why every workplace is a care setting, how on-site clinics and medically informed benefits change outcomes, and why clinicians need fluency in HR, safety, and security to drive meaningful prevention. He shares a clear blueprint for interdisciplinary collaboration that reduces injuries, accelerates return-to-work decisions, and strengthens a culture of well-being grounded in trust.
From there, we dive into technology’s role. AI can analyze incident data, wearables, and claims to surface risks early, but tools must never eclipse people. You’ll hear a practical framework for adopting AI that supports triage and capacity planning while protecting empathy, privacy, and integrity. Charles brings rare perspective from crisis zones and high-stakes environments, translating situational awareness into corporate contingency planning for natural disasters, violent incidents, and operational disruptions.
We also map the global risk horizon employers must face: escalating healthcare costs that squeeze competitiveness, pandemics on shorter cycles, climate-driven heat and storm events, and geopolitical instability affecting global teams. Charles shares a powerful leadership lesson from responding to the Oklahoma City bombing—why mental health is inseparable from physical safety—and offers actionable guidance for students and early-career professionals who want to blend clinical skill with public service and corporate impact: serve first, stay flexible, and say yes to hard problems.
Welcome to the Future of Health Podcast, presented by HOSA Future Health Professionals. Today I'm thrilled and honored to have for the second time on the HOSA podcast, Dr. Charles Williams, Chief Medical Officer, Global Medical Services from the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Take two, Doctor. Thank you for having me. You know, it's so incredible to have you here live at the International Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the HOSA International Leadership Conference, and to be talking about the future of healthcare, Dr. Williams. And so leading right into the interview, I'd like to ask you what does future-ready health leadership look like to you, especially in a company as complex and global as Lockheed Martin?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'll take it in the context really of any corporation and organization. So even though we are not a healthcare organization, we continue to have an ever-present focus on the healthcare delivery systems in the communities where we're at and the care that's available for them.
SPEAKER_00:And so, Dr. Williams, in your view, how can the next generation of health professionals prepare to serve both clinical and corporate populations effectively?
SPEAKER_01:I think that's a great question. I think we have great training programs out there that are focused on delivering quality health care providers that are out there. Those programs typically are focused on the conventional healthcare systems in which we typically think of physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and all the care providers that do that. I think that the next generation needs to understand that wherever we have people, we have health care needs. And corporations, organizations, businesses have an incredible vested interest in the healthcare of their employees, their populations, and therefore there are opportunities within those companies to give advice, guidance, if not direct clinical care to the employees within the organizations. So there really should be a call for one, our healthcare providers to understand that there is the opportunity to deliver care or to give consultation on the care services outside the hospital systems. And there's a tremendous need for our employers to understand that there are care providers that are there that are available to give that care and deliver that guidance.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. And so can you speak to the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between medical professionals, engineers, and security experts, specifically in your work at Lockheed?
SPEAKER_01:So in our organization, we are an integral component of our operations and our service delivery platform. My organization is the center of excellence for the healthcare guidance for the employee care that's delivered one in our on-site, and then we're the lead consultants for our benefit team from a medical perspective, care delivery for our employee. But if we break it down to the day-to-day operations, we have embedded health care facilities within our production facilities that work closely with our safety directors, with our HR, with our security operations to deliver the care needed to our employees as well as to monitor work-related injuries and any preventive services that we can offer through based on the scope of practice of our care providers. So we have a very well integrated and a necessary relationship with all of our functional organizations.
SPEAKER_00:It sounds like you've connected all the dots, and I'd like to ask you about the dots in your career. So you've had a varied career in law enforcement, you've been in special operations, and now in your current role and previous roles. How have all of these various, you know, just opportunities in your career helped to shape your understanding of resilience and decision making under the most incredible pressure?
SPEAKER_01:I think that's a great question. And and if if I had to distill everything down to what is it that has gotten me to the point where I currently am, I think I would focus on the term flexibility and willingness to contribute and serve. I think that that you know, from what I've done in my medical training, my pre-hospital care training, my special operations training, law enforcement, all the counter-anterrorism work, all the stuff that I've done has made me one, I think, pretty flexible, pretty uh open to consider challenges that are out there, and doing all of that on a platform of wanting and willing to serve others for the betterment of all. And what that has done is it has allowed me the opportunity to one be in some very interesting places, um, some very challenging places, but in all instances working towards what I can do to help make things better and help others.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. And so it first of all, it's incredible. I've seen a lot of resumes over the years, but my gosh, you're varied experienced. I mean, it's so so incredibly powerful powerful. And talk about resilience. And you've even had the opportunity to fly in some of the products your company makes.
SPEAKER_01:We so I had some incredible opportunities within the organization. The aeronautics business area within Lockheed Martin is uh is one of our uh predominant and premier business areas out of the four business areas. We have some fantastic products that we put out. I um had the opportunity to um help ferry, which means transport two F-16s to Colombia, um, as uh they were uh recruiting us to look at the product for potentially adding to their Air Force and participating in their air show. And uh indeed, um uh, you know, the F-16 is celebrating its 50th year anniversary in air and is still one of the major flat platforms in a number of uh countries throughout our international geographies. And I had the chance to fly in it and fly a little bit in.
SPEAKER_00:It it that's that's incredible. It's incredible to to for you likely to have flown in the products that your company makes. I mean, that's that's just uh awe-inspiring. Shifting to healthcare again. Um corporate health is evolving, right? And there's technology, and this you and I have talked about a lot AI, emergency, emerging technologies, innovation. Dr. Williams, how do you believe all of this will transform how companies support employee well-being in general?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I think that the um make no mistake about it, the the leaps and bounds that we're making in techno in the technological advancements these days are going to change the face of the way that we do work, including not only how we provide health care, but the way that our companies and our organizations work, mine included, within the next five to ten years. Um I think that the the good news is that there are tremendous opportunities through the technologies that we're getting, including artificial intelligence, to help streamline the work that we're doing, take massive amounts of information and process it in ways that we never conceptualize it being processed. Um, however, the work that we need to do is to truly find out how do we assimilate that technology in without losing our people and understanding that our people have our one, our greatest asset that we have within our organizations, our companies, and how do we take that technology that we have and the advances and the and and and help get it to help us understand how do we take care of our people better as we're doing our work faster and smarter?
SPEAKER_00:And so you've worked in austere environments in crisis zones, part of your varied background, which we all stand in awe of. Thank you for your service to our nation and to the citizens of the world. How do you bring that kind of situational awareness to planning in your current role for corporate health risks?
SPEAKER_01:There's there's nothing like staring your own potential death in face to help uh open the aperture of your understanding of the value of life and the value of interpersonal communication, contact, communication, and the work that we do. Um, those experiences that I've had, which um I wouldn't necessarily repeat those if I had the opportunity, just so you know, George, um really have put me in a position where in all instances, with all the complexity of the work that we do, I continue to understand that the most valuable thing that we have is the life that we have. And so when we have very complex situations, we have uh natural disasters, we have man-made disasters, we have incidents of violence or so forth. I always go back to that foundation of how do we help people stay alive and do better in all times, and then start working the contingency plans for how do you make those things happen? How do you stop the threat, right? Right? How do you identify risks? How do you start to mitigate them? How do you bring resources, including healthcare organizations, those things to bear? Yeah, to one stop the bleeding, if you would.
SPEAKER_00:We're grateful that you're in the role you're in. Let me just say that. Let me just say that. And so from a public health lens, this is a deeper question, perhaps. What, Dr. Williams, do you see as emerging health global risks? So, what are those global risks in health that large employers should plan, should anticipate, perhaps over the next five to ten years?
SPEAKER_01:I think that's a great question as well. If you think about global risks, I think one of the things that you hear a lot about, but it's not really put into the aperture of being a risk, but it absolutely is. And that is the cost, the increasing cost of healthcare, healthcare delivery, pharmaceuticals, all of those things. If you look at the challenges that companies and organizations have, they the number one cost typically is the cost of their labor, and it's the cost of delivering that benefit, that healthcare benefit, which is not just a benefit, it really is an essential. That's right. And so it's a risk because it's expensive, and if they get the opportunity, they're going to trim down that risk and that cost so that they can deliver their products, more products faster. So we're not speaking about the uncontrolled cost in our healthcare industry as a true risk to the company, but it absolutely is, and we have to recognize that. That's number one. Wow. We do anticipate that there is the risk of the ever-emerging pandemic. No one wants to hear about COVID-19 again. Unfortunately, it's not gone, but the unfortunate risk is historically they thought that the pandemics were once in a hundred years. Latest statistics have cut that time in half. So it's possible that we could certainly experience that episode again. Then you talk about climate change and risk on industry, and you think about um the impact that we have with severe storms and so forth, those are ever growing and increasing risk secondary to climate change, is a huge risk. And then it should be no surprise whatsoever. The geopolitical stability of our countries is a significant risk. And that's one of the things that I'm most proud of in my organization is our mission to provide global security and stability for not only the United States, but all of our um globally, if we can, for the whole world.
SPEAKER_00:Incredible perspective. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. That's it's such a lesson for corporate leaders around the world and anyone running an organization to be thinking about and to be aware of. And so deeply grateful for that perspective. Dr. Williams, would you be able to share a moment in your career where perhaps an unexpected challenge taught you something critical, specifically about leadership and relating to healthcare?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I think that if I if I had to go back to it, you know, April 19th of 1995, um, when I was one of the first responders to the bombing of the Alpha P. Murray building in Oklahoma City. Um the building dropped at 9.02, 904, my pager went off for the sheriff's department that I just joined two months before. By 915, I was in the building. And um, at that point in time, I was a second-year resident in emergency medicine and was just helping the my friends out in the sheriff's department that I'd made while I was in the emergency department because they were all the people that would come to help me when we hit things went bad in the emergency department. I had no idea that within two months I'd be called to respond to one at that point in time, the largest acts of domestic terrorism. That day that I spent in the Murrah building did a couple of things. It continues to teach me lessons that I learned, but one of the biggest lessons that I learned was one, this was wrong. Right. That it was wrong that we had to respond, that we had to put our first responders in place, that those people lost their lives and so forth. Secondary two, individuals that were struggling psychologically, politically motivated, and that were inspired to kill others in a mass fashion. And and so that that recognition of that need um really helped to emphasize the fact that we truly have to focus on the mental health and well-being of our population, of our employees, of our peers, our friends, our family, because it's instrumental not only to how we are emotionally well, but as we've seen, how we can be physically well. And then the two weeks that I spent there in the recovery from that disaster, I spent the two weeks down there at the Murrah building with the sheriff's deputies, with the highway patrolmen, with the EMS providers, the fire department, the search and rescue teams, there providing care to them. And at that point in time, there wasn't a great system set up for that. So it really affirmed this need for me to take health care into the field as far forward into the hot zone as possible, and that kind of led to me being in the funny positions that I've been in in the past.
SPEAKER_00:Well, they're they're positions of of change and impact, and uh it's not by accident that you're doing what you're doing. Let's just say that, right? It's not by accident, and so that all leads us to probably the most profound question in terms of this interview today, part two of the interview here with Dr. Williams, Lockheed Mark. Dr. Williams, what advice would you give to students and those in early career professional development programs interested in blending clinical medicine with public service or corporate leadership?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I I think if I had to put it um and and summarize it, it would be in always think of how of how you can serve and how you can help. If you've gone into healthcare in whatever form or fashion or facet, um, and whether it's for animal health or whether it's for human health base, you're you're there because of this desire to help others. And I think the advice is to is to understand that that's not limited to just being in the hospital or in the clinic. It's it really is about how can you help others in multiple instances. And the opportunities that I've had is because I tend to say yes and I look for the yes in every complex problem or question or concern that's out there. And when people ask you for help and you say yes, let me see how I can help, that will open the doors, one, not only within healthcare systems, but it will open the doors to the infrastructures for organizations, municipalities, and um everyone that's out there that has a need. And the need is great. And so I think to summarize, George, I would say always look for opportunity. Keep your foundation of service to others, and say yes more than you say no.
SPEAKER_00:You know, it's uh we've done a lot of these interviews over the years, and this is uh profound. It's profound. It's so valuable for those future health professionals across the world watching this program to hear from your leadership, Dr. Charles Williams, Chief Medical Officer Global Medical Services at Lockheed Martin, and a member of the HOSA 100 International Advisory Council. Here live at the HOSA International Leadership Conference 2025. Dr. Williams, thank you so much. Part two. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Ready for part three? Yeah, anytime.