A national association that provides training to professionals who maintain sports fields has hired a Lawrence resident as its executive director and is moving its headquarters to Lawrence.

The Sports Turf Managers Assn. announced Thursday that it had hired Kim Heck, a former executive at the Lawrence-based Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, to serve as its first full-time executive director. The nonprofit association also will move its corporate headquarters to Lawrence on Wednesday when Heck officially begins work.

Since 1996 the association has been managed by Trusty & Associates, a Council Bluffs, Iowa-based company that manages a variety of nonprofit associations. Steve Trusty, president of the company, said the association had grown from about 550 members when his company began managing it to 2,200.

“It has really grown rapidly,” Trusty said. “It has a lot of growth potential.”

Heck said she was looking for office space to house the association and was focusing her search on the downtown area. She said the association likely would hire five employees during the next 12 months.

“These definitely will be good jobs,” Heck said, although she said an average salary for the positions hadn’t yet been determined. “I think Lawrence should be excited about it.”

The association’s members include people who maintain baseball, soccer, football, lacrosse and other sports fields for professional teams, colleges, cities and school districts.

The association, formed in 1981, won’t compete with the city’s other large turf organization, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, which has a membership of about 21,000 and a staff of 120 people.

Heck worked for nearly 10 years at the golf course association as a manager of its career development, and market research and brand strategy departments.

Sports Turf Managers Assn. board members agreed to locate the association in Lawrence, in part, because it may be able to forge alliances with the golf course association. Heck said the city’s central location and access to an educated work force also were factors.

Heck said she planned to be more aggressive in trying to attract membership from cities and school districts that could benefit from training in how to make their sports fields safer.

She said it was tough to say how large the organization could become, but said the success of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America could serve as a good example.

“People have said we look a lot like the GCSAA did 25 years ago in terms of size,” Heck said.