Our Founders

Laurie Kroll, Village2Village Director, has twenty-seven years of experience in the field of human services, much of it working on children's issues. Providing hopeful solutions for children in crisis situations has always been her passion, whether she worked with Vermont's children in foster care, Vietnam's children in orphanages, international students visiting the US, or Uganda's parentless children. She and her husband have five children, including two born in Vermont, two born in Vietnam, and James, born in Uganda. They have also been host parents to several exchange students.

James Mutaka Kroll, Uganda Program Manager, is an Information Technology graduate from Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Uganda. His birthfather had seven wives and 33 children before succumbing to AIDS when James was 13. After this, James had no home. James performed well in secondary school despite working to pay his own educational and living expenses. He realized his birthmother was alive only shortly before his father's death, having been told while young that she had been killed by rebels. It is the children of her impoverished village that he reaches out to serve. James came to live with the Kroll family in 2002, after working in Vermont as a camp counselor for individuals with special needs. After returning to Uganda, he began working with orphans, and desired to help the children of Serere.