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The man who runs the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District has won honors from the American Heart Association.

Fire Chief Richard Price has been selected as the 2012 "Heart of Gold" honoree. The award honors a person who has made significant contribution to the fight against heart disease and has improved the safety of the Bay Area.

In January 2011 the San Ramon Valley Fire District, in an effort spearheaded by Price, released an iPhone application that lets everyday people provide life-saving assistance to victims of sudden cardiac arrest. App users who are trained in CPR can now be notified if someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency and may require resuscitation.

If the emergency is in a public place, the application will alert people nearby of the need for CPR. The application also directs these rescuers to the exact location of the closest public access Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Since its release earlier this year the application has received worldwide attention and acclaim.

Price pointed out that one person every two minutes -- nearly 1,000 people daily -- die from sudden cardiac arrest.

He joined the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District in 2006 as the Assistant Fire Chief of Operations and was named Fire Chief in 2008. Price is also the President of the PulsePoint Foundation and holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from California State University Hayward. He is a California State Certified Fire Chief and is an internationally certified Chief Fire Officer.

In 2009 Price completed the four-year Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy in Maryland. Price is also a graduate of the Harvard University Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at the Kennedy School of Government and the Strategic Management of Public Organizations Program at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. In 2011 Price graduated from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School.

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