Williams has been a member of CSFA since 1994, serving on the volunteer and public relations committees, and as a southern division deputy director. He sits on several local organizations including the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council, the Tri-Counties Training Officers Association, Santa Barbara Chapter of CAER and the Santa Barbara PIO group EPIC. He has been appointed to the California State Board of Fire Services representing CSFA and the volunteer firefighters of California. Williams is the founder and coordinator of the annual CSFA-sponsored HELOPS program in Santa Ynez that ran for seven years. CSFA awarded Williams the Thomas H. "Tom" Garner award in 2004. Williams currently serves as the president-executive director of the Wildland Residents Association-San Marcos Pass Volunteer Fire Department in Santa Barbara.

Williams spent over a dozen years in California law enforcement and was a POST certified field training officer. His "day job" is president of Michael S. Williams Security Systems, Inc., a corporate investigation and security consulting firm, specializing in internal investigations for both the public and private sectors since 1985. For over ten years, he was a lead instructor for the National Traffic Safety Institute. He served twice as the Santa Barbara chapter chair for the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) and is a well known public speaker on security, investigation and emergency planning issues.