Lydia Watson, MD, serves as a real-life example of the physician pipeline she’s worked to strengthen during her tenure as president and CEO of Midland-based MyMichigan Health.
Dr. Watson, a board-certified OB-GYN, grew up in the Detroit area and originally planned to complete her residency in Detroit or Chicago.
“I thought I was a big-city girl,” she said. “But I met my husband in medical school — he was a year ahead of me — and he chose to do his family practice residency in Midland.
“So I knew if we were going to stay together, I needed to look at programs nearby. I ended up doing my OB-GYN residency in Saginaw.
“Even then, we thought we might move away afterward. But we loved the communities, the leaders who taught us, and our patient experiences — in both Midland and Saginaw. So we stayed.
“That was 38 years ago. Training in this community really made the difference for both of us.”
That firsthand experience — being trained locally and choosing to stay — later informed Dr. Watson’s work to strengthen physician pipelines across the system.
Now, Dr. Watson is preparing to retire, effective July 5. Bryan Cross, PharmD, the health system’s COO, will assume the role of CEO on March 29, allowing for a leadership transition ahead of Dr. Watson’s official retirement.
Her departure follows 29 years with the health system. She previously served as senior vice president and chief medical officer before becoming CEO in 2022.
Dr. Watson is credited with playing key roles in the acquisition of Ascension Medical Center locations in Saginaw, Standish and Tawas, and in MyMichigan’s collaboration with Central Michigan University and Covenant HealthCare to move CMU’s medical school to the campus of MyMichigan Medical Center Saginaw.
Dr. Cross is also a longtime leader in the system, which has 10,000 employees across the state. Before his current role, he served as president of MyMichigan Medical Center Midland.
He is credited with helping shape the system’s strategic planning and leading its COVID-19 response and vaccination efforts.
Becker’s connected with Drs. Watson and Cross to discuss the system and its path forward.
Editor’s note: Responses are lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: Your leadership at MyMichigan has emphasized safety, transparency, and employee wellbeing. As you reflect on your tenure, what cultural shift are you most proud of — and how do you hope that legacy continues under new leadership?
Dr. Lydia Watson: One of the reasons I decided to apply for the job of CEO is because I wanted to maintain the culture that began under the CEO before me. I was part of her executive leadership team.
When I think about the cultural shift we’ve had in our organization, I’m most proud of how we moved from talking about safety, transparency and well-being as ideals to living them out as expectations. We began monitoring metrics to make sure we were actually hitting the mark. We developed strategies and initiatives to create an environment where people felt safe speaking up — especially about patient safety — as well as personal and workplace concerns. We emphasized taking care of themselves with care and compassion.
That took several years of sustained effort to become embedded in the culture. We continue educating, teaching and finding new initiatives every year to keep addressing those needs.
Currently, safety — in general, but particularly psychological safety — is foundational to everything we do at MyMichigan Health.
Q: From a Girl Scout first aid badge to CEO of a major health system, your journey is remarkable. What defining moments shaped your leadership philosophy, and how did your clinical background inform your decisions as an executive?
LW: I tell my team and other leaders I mentor that you need to know what your leadership philosophy is based on. Mine is based on three core values: integrity, collaboration and compassion. Those were shaped long before I held a formal leadership title.
It started in those early Girl Scout days. The first aid badge piqued my interest in medicine, but being a Girl Scout helped me learn responsibility, preparation and showing up — all of which carried into my years practicing as an OB-GYN and, even more so, into leadership.
Defining moments really started there. I was in Girl Scouts for about four to five years — I wasn’t a Brownie, but I was a Junior for about three years and then a Cadette.
When I became a physician and worked with patients, sitting with families in moments of stress and uncertainty, I learned how to respond not only to medical issues but also to family dynamics. I learned to advocate for patients and to work within complex systems to get things done. In healthcare, you can’t just have a goal and go after it in isolation. It’s about navigating complexity and working with others to achieve outcomes.
My training as an OB-GYN reinforced for me the importance of empathy. When you have empathy, teamwork becomes easier. Decision-making becomes clearer. That clinical background grounded my executive decisions. Having had those caregiving experiences helped me understand what’s truly needed to lead healthcare organizations.
Q: You were instrumental in bringing CMU’s medical school to MyMichigan’s Saginaw campus. What long-term impact do you envision this academic partnership having on rural care access and physician training in the region?
LW: That’s probably one of the things I’m most proud of as I close my career.
Bringing CMU’s College of Medicine to Saginaw and establishing a four-year program there is about more than just the bricks and mortar. It’s an investment in the future of healthcare for our region.
With our 10 hospitals across MyMichigan Health — spanning from the middle of the state into the Upper Peninsula — we have multiple community, sole community and rural hospitals. There’s a physician shortage nationwide, and Michigan is no exception. We’re all competing for the same talent.
By training students within our system and communities, we increase the likelihood that they’ll stay and practice here. Studies show that training physicians where they’re needed most makes it more likely they’ll remain long term.
Our partnership with CMU strengthens that pipeline and also supports our current staff in maintaining clinical excellence. It fosters innovation and lifelong learning. When you’re teaching, you stay current.
Long term, this will improve access to care, outcomes, and health equity across the region. Health equity matters because in smaller communities, people don’t always have access to great care. This helps close that gap.
Q: As you step into the CEO role following Dr. Watson’s legacy, what core value will you carry forward — and where do you see an opportunity to chart a new course for MyMichigan Health?
Dr. Bryan Cross: The core value I will carry forward is our culture of safety. Under Dr. Watson’s leadership over the last decade, MyMichigan Health has made safety a daily discipline — rooted in transparency, communication, accountability, and a constant focus on identifying and addressing risk. That commitment to high reliability will remain foundational.
The opportunity ahead is advancing systemness — operating as one integrated system with clearer alignment across hubs and community hospitals. By standardizing where it adds value and aligning strategy, capital, and talent, we can reduce complexity while strengthening local care delivery.
Q: With financial pressures and workforce challenges intensifying across healthcare, what specific strategies are you prioritizing to enhance operational performance and staff retention in your first year as CEO?
BC: Financial performance and workforce retention are inseparable. The most sustainable cost strategy in healthcare is designing work that people can do well, consistently, and without unnecessary friction.
Retention depends on making work more sustainable. We’re investing in leadership development, addressing workload and call burden, expanding flexibility where it makes sense, and using tools like ambient listening to give time back to clinicians. When people can focus on meaningful work, engagement improves, turnover declines, and operational performance strengthens at the same time.
Q: Coming from a clinical and operational background as a pharmacist and COO, how will you apply systems thinking to improve care delivery — and can you share a concrete initiative where that approach will make a difference?
BC: My background as a pharmacist and COO has trained me to see healthcare as an interconnected system, where access, capacity, quality and cost are deeply linked. Improving care delivery means designing the system — not just fixing individual parts.
A concrete example is how we’re approaching access. We’re aligning referrals, clinic templates, provider capacity, and entry points across the system to improve access without simply adding more resources. By taking an end-to-end, systemwide view, we can deliver timelier, coordinated care for patients while making work more sustainable for our teams.
