She was director of the French Language program at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Virginia.
[1] She described a talk given by Dieter F. Uchtdorf on this topic as "the balm of Gilead for many people who are struggling with questions to which they cannot find answers.”[1] In her 2016 article in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Givens wrote about ancient traditions which associated Heavenly Mother with the Holy Spirit.
[2] In 2019, Givens gave a keynote speech at a conference "Women and Mormonism" where she urged the LDS Church “to tap more deeply the potential of a theological framework that has dared to challenge the model of unequivocal patriarchy, both on earth and in heaven.”[3] In March 2021, Givens gave a fireside chat and spoke about Heavenly Mother, suggesting that she was present at Joseph Smith's First Vision.
[4] Givens has published essays and articles in Exponent II, LDS Living, Journal of Mormon History, and Dialogue.
After living in Richmond, Virginia,[8] she and Terryl Givens moved to Provo, Utah to work at the Maxwell Institute at BYU.