Vic and Leslie Trautwein came to Kids Alive International from Wheaton, Illinois, in February 2002. Vic serves as Co-Country Director/Director of Operations and Leslie is the Director of Preventative and Clinical Health Care and assists in communications. Vic and Leslie both graduated from Dartmouth College with degrees in Engineering (Vic) and Biochemistry (Leslie). Vic received his MBA from Stanford Business School and has worked as both a management consultant and a general manager for a large public company. Leslie continued her medical schooling at Cornell University Medical College and Oakland Children's Hospital and worked at the University of Washington Department of Emergency Medicine. The Trautweins have four children: Samuel, Micah, Luke and Chase. As a family they enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, sea kayaking, and cross-country skiing (when possible).

Current projects in the Dominican Republic include developing better abilities to help and counsel children who have experienced severe trauma in their lives, improving nutritional offerings to help malnourished children and developing dental care capacity in each school. Additionally, the ministry hopes to improve its capacity to transition youth to independence as well as expand the university and vocational scholarship program that already includes around seventy youth.

"We are grateful to God for the blessings in our life and consider it a privilege to help rescue and transform the lives of at risk children in the Dominican Republic. We are also grateful for the way God orchestrates so much help from churches, child sponsors, missionaries, and our dedicated national workers. It's a blessing to be a small cog in God's giant wheel." ---Vic Trautwein