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Distinguished Speaker Event - Fall 2025
The Center for Health Practice, Policy, & Research (CHPPR) is proud to announce this year's Distinguished Speaker. The event will host Jeff Holden.
This event is complimentary to students, staff, faculty, & community members, and is made possible by the generous contributions of our CHPPR supporters.
Date: Saturday, March 7, 2025
Time: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Location: Folsom Hall
7667 Folsom Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95826
Agenda:
9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Registration Check-In and Continental Breakfast
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Jeff’s talk
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Healthcare Resource Fair
About the Distinguished Speaker
Join Jeff Holden—creator, podcast host, and author of Imperfect Heart: Stories of Myocardial Bridges—for an interactive conversation exploring an often-dismissed or misdiagnosed congenital heart condition. Through compelling storytelling, patient perspectives, and physician interviews, Jeff highlights how evolving research is reshaping diagnosis and treatment. Attendees will gain practical insights for patients, families, and clinicians, while discovering how greater awareness can change outcomes and help prevent sudden cardiac death linked to this condition.
Registration
Register for the Distinguished Speaker Series (No Fee)
Purchase a Healthcare Resource Fair Vendor Table
The event will have wheelchair accessible seating and vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options will be provided.
If you require ASL/English Interpreters or Closed Captions or other accommodations to attend this event, please email ashort@csus.edu by February 27, 2026 at 5 p.m.
About the Event
On August 26, 2021, Jeff Holden suffered a heart attack while training for a grueling cycling event—despite being in peak physical condition. Months of hospital visits and testing left questions unanswered until specialists at Stanford Medical Center diagnosed him with a congenital heart defect often dismissed or misdiagnosed: a myocardial bridge. A controversial surgery ultimately saved his life.
As a podcast studio owner and host, Jeff turned his experience into advocacy through the podcast and book Imperfect Heart:Stories of Myocardial Bridges. His mission: raise awareness, support patients with unexplained cardiac symptoms such as angina, shortness of breath, and radiating pain in the back, neck or jaw, and challenge outdated medical assumptions around heart attack–like events with no obvious cause.
Featuring interviews with world-renowned cardiologists—including Dr. Ingela Schnittger (Stanford), Dr. Khaled Ziada (Cleveland Clinic), and Dr. Samit Shah (Yale)—Jeff highlights conclusive evidence that myocardial bridges are symptomatic and treatable. With an estimated 25% of the population affected yet only 1% suspected to be symptomatic, he argues the number of truly impacted patients may be far higher, and that awareness can change—and save—lives.
