Meet our Airlift Northwest Leadership Team
Jeff Richey RN, MHA, FACHE
Executive Director - Airlift Northwest
Associate Administrator- University of Washington Medical Center
Jeff has over 30 years of experience in healthcare, including eight years as senior executive for clinical and ancillary services, 12 years in leadership for air medical transport systems and 26 years as a flight/critical care nurse. Jeff received his Bachelors in Nursing from Pacific Lutheran University, Master in Health Administration from the University of Washington and is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Richard B. Utarnachitt MD, MS
Medical Director
Richard B. Utarnachitt, MD, MS, is an ABEM board certified physician in both Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). He also serves as Medical Director and flight physician for Airlift Northwest, UW Medicine's air medical transport service. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the UW Department of Emergency Medicine and core faculty in the UW Section of EMS.
Dr. Utarnachitt finds great satisfaction in the role UW Medicine fills as the regional institution that provides tertiary care, as well as serves as the safety net hospital for the underserved population. Any patient is accepted into the UW system regardless of socioeconomic status. Airlift Northwest is a direct extension of the world-class service that UW Medicine provides.
Dr. Utarnachitt earned his MD from Wayne State University in Detroit. His clinical and research interests include critical care transport, airway management, sepsis care, pre-hospital trauma care and pre-hospital cardiac dysrhythmias.
Dr. Utarnachitt has a keen interest in all things food related. He is also an avid stand-up paddle boarder.
Kyle Danielson, MPH, MN, RN, CFRN, CMTE
Director of Operations
Kyle Danielson has a background as a critical care flight nurse and now serves as Director of Operations at Airlift Northwest. He holds credentials as a Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) and Certified Medical Transport Executive (CMTE), with extensive experience in air medical transport. Kyle came to ALNW with experience flying long-distance critical care transports in northern Canada. Throughout his career, he has worked closely with prehospital EMS providers and regional hospitals to deliver the highest level of care. He employs spatial analytics and data-informed decision-making to optimize efficiency and quality in support of safe, high-quality patient care.
He earned a Master of Nursing from the University of Toronto with a specialization in resuscitation science (2016) and his Master of Public Health from Simon Fraser University (2010), where his research focused on optimizing early activation of Helicopter EMS for major trauma. He is an active researcher and serves as Clinical Liaison to the Resuscitation Engineering Science Unit (RESCU) and continues to work on improvements in air medical transport, health systems, and resuscitation science.
Krista Haugen, MN, RN, CMTE
Krista Haugen has 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry and has served in several patient safety director roles at large medical transport organizations. She cared for patients during her twenty-five-year clinical nursing career in emergency departments, critical care units, and as a flight nurse. She now serves as the Director of Clinical, Quality, and Patient Safety at Airlift Northwest.
After surviving a helicopter crash while on duty in 2005, she co-founded the Survivors Network for the Air Medical Community, an innovative resource that educates and supports survivors, families, and team members. She was a voting member of the Rotorcraft Occupant Protection Working Group (ROPWG) and recently served on the Clinical Standards subcommittee of the No Surprises Act (NSA) Air Ambulance Quality and Patient Safety (AAQPS) Committee. She currently serves as a Regent and faculty member for the AAMS Leadership Incident Fortification Training (LIFT) Institute.
Her professional interests include building resilient and reliable systems in the context of complexity, human factors and performance, Crew Resource Management, Just Culture, and mitigating medical transport risk. She is also passionate about and committed to supporting well-being and resilience in healthcare professionals and emergency responders.