Rescue Response International

Rescue Response International (RRI)

We continue to work in Haiti through our sister organization, Haiti Air Ambulance. In 2026, our international work was rebranded as Rescue Response International (RRI). The name reflects our mission to support countries across the full disaster management cycle—from preparedness to response—while remaining agile, responsive, and collaborative with local, national, regional, and international partners through open information sharing.

About Us

Haiti Air Ambulance (HAA) is a non-profit organization established in 2014 working in emergency response, response readiness and disaster risk reduction (DRR). In 2025, we did our first international response, delivering lifesaving aid to people affected by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica. On that response, we flew over 300 flights with our helicopters to areas cut off by the storm, delivering over 500,000 lbs of food and other relief materials to populations that couldn’t otherwise be reached. We still work in Haiti through our sister organization Haiti Air Ambulance, but in 2026 we rebranded as Rescue Response International (RRI) for our work outside Haiti. We chose the name because we believe it accurately reflects what we aim to do – support countries during the full disaster management cycle from the initial phases of preparedness to disaster response. Our key priority is to remain nimble, agile, and responsive to how we can best complement other local, national, regional and international humanitarian actors, including through open information sharing. We have light, medium, and heavy airlift capacity, and provide training and capacity building, policy and coordination support, and emergency response services, including last-mile logistics throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. We build and cultivate strong relationships with local first responders and governments, including through our training and policy support activities, allowing for integrated support in the most needed areas when disaster strikes. For more information on our programs, please see our training offer and emergency response pages.

Our Core Team

David Ellis

David Ellis is the Executive Director of Haiti Air Ambulance – Private Foundation. He has more than 25 years of leadership experience in complex, non-permissive environments, including Haiti. He is also the Executive Director of Haiti Air Ambulance, has extensive experience in domestic and international nonprofit management, more than twenty years of service in air medical and critical care transport and international fixed-wing operations, and more than fifteen years of experience in rotor-wing air medical operations. He is a Certified Medical Transport Executive and holds a B.S. in Health Care Administration. Mr. Ellis is a published author and sought-after speaker recognized for driving organizational growth, advancing high-acuity transport systems, and leading teams through complex operational and logistical challenges.

John Lyon, ESQ.

John Lyon, ESQ., is the Executive Director of Rescue Response International – 501c3. Three weeks after joining HAA, he led our first response in Jamaica, a country that is close to his heart and where he was a Peace Corps Volunteer, and from there RRI was born. Since 2018, he has helped US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) develop, plan and execute a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) training tract used annually, focused on supporting first responders to better prepare and deploy for emergencies. From 2022-2025 he was President and CEO of World Hope International, where he led responses for the 2021 Earthquake in Haiti, 2020 Hurricane in Colombia, 2019 Hurricane in the Bahamas, 2018 & 2019 Wildfires in California, 2015 Earthquake in Nepal, and 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. He holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri – Kansas City.

Chris (Michael) Schaff

Chris (Michael) Schaff is the Director of Operations and Training for Rescue Response International. He is a nationally registered paramedic, and has over 33 years of critical care air and ground patient transport experience. Since retiring from the Fire Service in 2018, Chris worked for the US Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security as a disaster response specialist, building a well respected global disaster response capability within the bureau before joining #TeamRRI. Chris retired from the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department as a Battalion Chief in the Special Operations Division. In his final assignment, he served as the Program Manager and Task Force Leader of the world-renowned international urban search and rescue team USA-1. He has also served in the United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group as a member of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Liberty University in Political Science.

Laurel Hanson

Laurel Hanson is the Director of Partnerships and Impact for Rescue Response International. During our first response, to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, she led planning and external relations for the RRI-led consortium. Previously, she worked at USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, where her work included service on the Response Management Team (RMT) for the Gaza complex emergency, on UN partnerships, and on climate resilience. Outside of government, she has managed large-scale emergency response grants for NGOs in Myanmar, Mongolia, Nicaragua, and Mexico. She’s passionate about disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy and coordination systems, and has also served with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, providing expert technical advisory services on DRR. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University in International Development and a Master of Arts from King’s College in London in Geography with a focus on Disasters and Adaptation.

Beyond our core staff, we draw on experts from our networks from USAR teams USA-1 and 2, Burnaby USAR, former US Marines, and humanitarian experts that trained and have worked at USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, with the United Nations system, and with NGOs.