He wasn’t one of the first applicants for the job.
When Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, heard that the University of South Florida was looking for someone to lead its health colleges, he was already leading the medical school and health colleges of The Ohio State University.
The call came from a member of the USF search committee, looking for advice: Did he know of any potential candidates?
What the search committee member didn’t know was that Dr. Lockwood and his wife, Nancy, had already agreed that it was time for a fresh start in a new location. And that they loved Florida.
“I threw my hat in the ring at the last minute,” he said.
On his first visit to Tampa, Dr. Lockwood recognized the value of USF Health’s colleges – and he saw their potential. He was also very impressed by Tampa General Hospital. As a nationally recognized researcher, clinical leader in high-risk obstetrics, educator and faculty practice administrator, he could offer guidance to USF Health across the spectrum of academic medicine.
“If we could standardize admissions, modernize the curriculum, develop a strategy for research, re-engineer the faculty practice and add financial resources, there was no limit to what could be accomplished. I thought, ‘If I had the right team, this is very doable.’ I saw it as huge opportunity to build a world-class academic medical center.”
In 2014, Dr. Lockwood arrived on campus to lead USF Health and become dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. He never looked back. In the decade since, USF Health has transformed – making historic improvements and expansions in every arena.
"Over the past decade, USF Health has made significant strides in enhancing its academic programs and further establishing the University of South Florida as a vital resource within the Tampa Bay region's health care system," said USF President Rhea Law. "During Dr. Lockwood's tenure, we have boldly strengthened our partnership with Tampa General Hospital, allowing our academic medical center to set the standard for the future of healthcare through impactful teaching, innovative research and quality patient care. We are extremely grateful for his leadership and his unwavering commitment to excellence."
L to R: USF President Rhea Law, Carol and Frank Morsani, and Dr. Charles J. Lockwood at the 2024 50th anniversary Golden Gala.
John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital, USF Health’s primary teaching partner, has forged a close working relationship with Dr. Lockwood.
“The indelible impact Dr. Charly Lockwood has had on USF Health and our region cannot be understated,” he said. “Over his decade-long tenure as the dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, Dr. Lockwood has truly elevated USF Health, propelling cutting-edge research and advanced training for the next generation of health care professionals,” he said. “I congratulate Charly on ten transformative years and look forward to working with him for years to come.”
Dr. Lockwood is now executive vice president of USF Health and the longest serving dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, which this year celebrated the 50th anniversary of its charter class graduation.
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Under Dr. Lockwood’s tenure, USF Health has made remarkable gains across all of its missions:
RESEARCH. USF Health has dramatically increased its research funding, moving from $122 million in total research awards in 2014 to $345 million in 2024. Last year, USF was invited to join the prestigious Association of American Universities, placing it among a group of the largest research universities in the nation – a goal it couldn’t have reached without USF Health’s research funding, which makes up about 67% of USF’s total.
In 2023, the Morsani College of Medicine was recognized as the nation’s fastest-rising medical school for research and primary care in U.S. News & World Report rankings over the past decade. In addition, seven MCOM departments are ranked among the top 50 in the nation in funding from the National Institutes of Health.
In June, USF Health’s research growth contributed to another milestone, as world-renowned virologist Robert C. Gallo, MD, joined the Morsani College of Medicine as the James P. Cullison Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and as the director of the newly established USF Health Virology Center. At the same time, the Global Virus Network, with its 80 centers of excellence in 40 countries, an organization that Dr. Gallo co-founded, moved its international headquarters to USF.
Dr. Lockwood played a pivotal role in recruiting Dr. Gallo, the co-discoverer of the HIV virus and only living recipient of two Lasker Awards, often described as the American counterpart to the Nobel Prize.
“Dean Lockwood was instrumenal in my recruitment,” Dr. Gallo said. “There were colleagues I knew already here in Tampa, including Eduardo Sotomayor and Christian Brechot, but it was meeting with Dean Lockwood, who I found extremely cordial and even fun but also inspirational, that truly stood out. He has a dynamic background and exceptional leadership qualities. I have worked with several other deans and leaders, and in my view, he is the best of all – a quick understanding and grasp of problems and people, energy, decisiveness and inspirational.”
Dr. Charles J. Lockwood, center, at the signing ceremony with the Global Virus Network in June 2024.
Research has grown so much over the past decade at USF Health that the biggest research challenge the organization now faces is finding enough lab space for all the researchers it is recruiting.
PATIENT CARE. USF Health’s patient care revenues have increased from $229 million to over $400 million over the past decade. USF Health faculty physicians remain on the forefront of pioneering innovative clinical procedures, such as the use of focused ultrasound to treat movement disorders and the complex high-risk deliveries of babies with severe fetal conditions. Often these procedures and treatments are not available to patients elsewhere in Tampa Bay or even across the state.
At Tampa General, eight specialties that are led or co-led by MCOM physicians are now ranked in the top 50 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, with OB-GYN, Dr. Lockwood’s specialty, ranking #6. Three more specialties are ranked in the top 10% nationally.
Together, TGH and USF Health were an invaluable resource for the region during the COVID pandemic, participating in national clinical research trials, caring for the region’s sickest patients, working with local and state officials to provide testing and vaccines and offering medical advice and expertise to leaders at every level of government.
USF Health’s gains in patient care were furthered this year by the historic expansion of USF Health’s affiliation agreement with Tampa General, a move that furthers the strategic alignment of both organizations to allow for additional growth.
“I remain grateful for his continued partnership as we work to build one of the nation’s leading university-based academic health systems, improve the health and lives of those in our community and beyond and transform Tampa Bay into a leading destination for world-class academic-based medicine, research and patient care,” Couris said.
Dr. Lockwood described their work succinctly.
“Obviously the partnership has been 2 + 2 = 8,” he joked.
Other USF Health colleges also have expanded to increase patient access. The USF Health College of Nursing is in the midst of a historic expansion to increase the number of nursing students as a response to Florida’s severe nursing shortage. The college also has embarked on other creative ways to reach patients, including with a mobile nursing unit that travels to areas with limited health care and by opening the USF College of Nursing Port of Tampa Seafarers Center Clinic. The Tenaja College of Pharmacy faculty are embedded in various MCOM clinical practices, optimizing the value, efficacy and safety of patient medications.
EDUCATION. Over the past decade, Morsani College of Medicine students have soared in student metrics. This year’s class, the most academically competitive in the college’s history, boasts a median GPA of 3.95 and a median MCAT score that put them among the top 3 percent of students in the nation (520). Graduating seniors also rank well above the national average in the comprehensive exams students take during medical school and have among the highest satisfaction with their education of any U.S. allopathic medical school.
Those gains occurred as MCOM shifted its educational curriculum to focus on competency-based, active, multimodal learning, state-of-the-art simulation, frequent formative assessments and implementing modern learning theories, as well as encouraging students to develop resilience and other emotional intelligence skills.
“That to me is where we have made a long-term impact on the state of Florida,” Dr. Lockwood said. “These students are going to make an enormous difference in health care for generations to come.”
Dr. Charles J. Lockwood, right, at Match Day 2024 with U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and USF mascot Rocky D. Bull.
Students in other USF Health programs have made gains as well, with programs in nursing, public health, pharmacy and physical therapy seeing national rankings increase in tandem with rising student metrics.
Jay Wolfson, DrPH, JD, currently the interim dean of the USF Health College of Public Health, has held various leadership roles at USF Health for 40 years. Dr. Lockwood’s commitment to students is one of his strengths, Dr. Wolfson said.
“Charly Lockwood is the consummate physician-scholar-leader,” he said. “He is wicked smart. He is an accomplished, well-funded and internationally recognized scientist-clinician. And he places the quality of student selection, education and outcomes for all of USF Health at the top of his priorities.”
It doesn’t hurt that students in both Medicine and Pharmacy now study at USF Health’s new downtown facility, a waterfront building that offers flexible learning spaces and an inviting atmosphere.
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Looking at the gains of the past decade today, USF Health’s journey to academic excellence, financial stability and unprecedented growth can seem almost inevitable. But that would overlook the various challenges that Dr. Lockwood had to address as soon as he arrived in 2014. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education arrived at MCOM for an accreditation visit within a few months of his arrival, requiring a period of intense preparation that Dr. Lockwood still describes as “an all-hands-on deck moment.” The practice plan’s electronic medical records system was switched to a new one immediately, making the change more rapidly than anyone else in the EMR company’s history. Two large initiatives also required immediate changes, including the shutdown of USF Health’s clinics in The Villages retirement community north of Tampa and re-engineering the Center for Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) business model.
In addition to a talent for identifying how to improve across each aspect of its missions, Dr. Lockwood has helped USF Health thrive by putting all those pieces together into a larger vision and navigating smoothly in a complex environment, Dr. Wolfson said.
“Charly successfully engages highly complex political and institutional challenges, within the academy and the external public/private communities, creating economic, clinical and political win-wins,” he said. “Charly Lockwood has powerfully augmented USF Health with his vision, energy, capacity to organize and manage. Oh, and he is an especially keen historian, with a biting sense of humor.”
He also has a fondness for stormy weather – literally as a skilled sailor, and in the professional challenges he tackles. Those in academic medicine occasionally joke that obstetrician-gynecologists go into management because solving messy problems is what they do best: enter a room full of chaos, restore order and deliver a healthy baby.
Dr. Charles J. Lockwood speaks at a recent USF Health community forum.
Before becoming dean at Ohio State, Dr. Lockwood also chaired the Yale Medical Group Board of Governors and the OB-GYN department at the Yale University School of Medicine which rose to the top 5 in NIH grants under his leadership. He also chaired the New York University School of Medicine’s Department of OB-GYN, and was interim director of their NCI-designated Cancer Center for 18 months. The NYU experienced required him to make sweeping changes in his first turn as a department chair.
USF Health exerted that same pull for him, he said.
And today? Dr. Lockwood will keep pushing USF Health to keep rising on its energetic trajectory.
-- Photos by Ryan Rossy and Freddie Coleman, USF Health News