CHAMPAIGN — The executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County has accepted a job with Habitat's international organization, based in Georgia.

Beverly Huffman, a former Horizon Hobby executive who took over the local chapter two years ago, will be director of Habitat's U.S.-Canadian Support Center starting in late August.

In her new job, Huffman will provide support for Habitat chapters in both countries, as well as Habitat's donors and volunteers who have questions about how to get involved, help someone apply for a house or even start an affiliate.

Huffman said the job fits well with her background in the nonprofit and commercial sector.

Before taking the Habitat job, she worked for Horizon Hobby for 20 years in a call-center environment while helping build low-income homes in the United States and Mexico through her volunteer work.

"It kind of puts all that together with my experience as an executive director, to be able to help the affiliates and the donors and everyone on a larger level," Huffman said Thursday.

Board President Jerry Zachary said he had hoped Huffman could stay longer as executive director but praised her "business acumen" for leaving the affiliate in great financial shape.

Habitat's budget has grown 18 percent in the past two years, to $1.7 million. None of the 50-plus mortgages is in arrears, and a new funding option will help the affiliate expand its work, Zachary said.

Habitat recently created the Neighborhood Alliance for Habitat, a separate nonprofit that qualifies as a Community Housing Development Organization and can bring in more federal funds, Huffman said. The affiliate itself could not qualify as a housing development organization because rules require a third of the board of directors to be low-income individuals, she said. Other Habitat affiliates have set up similar organizations.

The hope is to roughly double the number of homes built in Champaign County to six a year, officials said.

A year ago the affiliate was having a hard time recruiting enough families to participate in its home-building program, partly because of credit problems. Aggressive outreach paid off, but now "we're ready for more" because of the expansion plans, she said.

"I am so excited about the future of the Champaign affiliate," she said. "We have so much participation from the community, and there's a real opportunity to serve the community in a bigger fashion."

Huffman said she will miss the hands-on work with the Champaign affiliate, which just dedicated its 58th house a week ago and broke ground on the 59th on Wednesday.

"I couldn't help thinking, 'Wow, I won't be doing that anymore,'" she said. "That's such a special part of the job. It's amazing to be able to be involved with the families very directly and see everything come to fruition."

She plans to get involved with Habitat building projects in Georgia, as well as Habitat's "Global Village" program, which sends people around the world for home-builds.

Based in Americus, Ga., Habitat works in all 50 states and 90 countries to build affordable housing in partnership with income-qualified families, who repay the no-interest mortgages over time. The United States has 1,600 Habitat affiliates.

A Virginia native, Huffman worked for Horizon for 20 years in Virginia, California and then Champaign, holding positions in sales, warehouse distribution, customer support and product support, among others.

Most recently, she had been director for a new toy division that employed 700 people worldwide. But when it shut down because of the poor economy, she decided to apply for the Habitat job in 2009.

Huffman had organized Horizon's support for a 2007 Habitat home-build in Urbana and often helped out at the building site.

She also organized home-building trips to Juarez, Mexico, through another nonprofit, taking teams of 12 to 20 employees there every year to build concrete-block homes for the poor.

Huffman said most of her family is still in Virginia, so she's happy to be returning to the south — and to be just three hours from the beach.

"Growing up on the coast, you really miss the ocean" in the Midwest, she said.

Zachary said Habitat's executive committee has hired longtime volunteer and consultant Debbie Hensleigh to recruit candidates for the executive director's job and bring in two or three finalists. The goal is to find someone with strong business skills who can also be a public face for Habitat and respects the organization's Christian-based principles.