Stephens named next Habitat executive director

Jan. 11—Owensboro/Daviess County Habitat for Humanity has announced that local resident Jeremy Stephens will be the next executive director of the nonprofit organization, upon the retirement of longtime director Virginia Braswell this spring.

"I am really in love with their mission," Stephens said Monday. "I am very excited about the opportunity to serve our community and work in an organization with this mission."

Stephens, an Owensboro native, has been the director of operations of the Owensboro Symphony the last eight years.

Braswell will retire March 29 after 29 years of service.

Braswell said Monday that the timing just seems right, and to quote Bob Dylan "the times they are a changing."

"I think as more and more things are online and electronic, and I am sort of a letter writer and a paper person; I think it is time to move to that other area," Braswell said.

Braswell said in addition to March 29 being her birthday, she also selected the day to retire because the 150th house built by Owensboro/Daviess County Habitat for Humanity should be completed and dedicated by then.

In addition to his work with the symphony, Stephens has also served on several boards and as a community volunteer, including with the Opportunity Center, the Brandon S. Mullins Foundation and Daviess County Public Schools. He is a member of Owensboro Christian Church.

"Since it started in 1993, our local Habitat has built 150 homes for people in our community, and as we celebrate our 29th year, I am honored to take the helm of this wonderful organization, with aspirations of not only continuing the work, but growing the organization's impact in Owensboro and Daviess County," he said.

Tim Belec, chairman of the Habitat executive search committee, said the committee actually rewrote the job description, making it more technological and operational. It was also decided to make the executive director role a paid position. It had previously been performed on a volunteer basis.

"We will have salary, health insurance, paid time off," Belec said. "We worked that out in the compensation package with the next executive director."

Stephens will start with Habitat next month, during which time he'll work alongside Braswell until her retirement.

Stephens said that the Habitat for Humanity Board was aware that Braswell was planning to retire and had allocated funding in its annual budget to make the executive director position a paid position.

"We had some really great candidates with some really great skills, but (Jeremy) kind of moved it to the next level, which was consistent with what we are looking for and why we created the job description we did."

Belec said the organization received about 33 applications for the position, many of which were local.

"(Jeremy) has that presence about him, he is very passionate when he talks about his work and his beliefs in Habitat and that is what we are looking for," Belec said. "We are not just looking for an administrator, we are looking for somebody that sees Habitat as a mission and a value to the community, and he definitely feels that way about it."

Nathan Havenner, Messenger-Inquirer, nhavenner@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-228-2837