The Western is fortunate to have Robert L. Phillips, Jr., MD, MSPH deliver the inaugural Prolo lecture on ethics and professionalism in medicine. Dr. Phillips’ road to his current position as Executive Director, Center for Professionalism & Value in Health Care, of the American Board of Family Medicine, began in the Missouri University of Science and Technology where he got his BS in 1990 followed by an MD at the U. of Florida then back to Missouri at the UM for his Family and Community Medicine residency and a Masters in Family and Community Medicine. He currently holds a Clinical Professorship in the Department of Family Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond plus being a Clinical Lecturer at the School of Public Health at George Washington University in DC. Robert previously served on the American Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education, as president of the National Residency Matching Program, vice chair of the US Council on Graduate Medical Education, and co-chair of Population Health on the National Committee for Vital and Health Statistics. He served as a Fulbright Specialist to the Netherlands in 2012 and New Zealand in 2016. A nationally recognized leader on primary care policy and health care reform, Dr. Phillips was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2010 and currently chairs the NAM Membership Committee. We look forward to his presentation entitled “Professional Autoimmune Disorder and the State of the Social Contract”.