[2]Dew told interviewers in 2002 and 2004 that as a teenager she was 5 feet, 10 inches tall and was a standout in high school basketball, averaging 23 points and 17 rebounds a game.

[8] After graduating from BYU, Dew moved into the publishing business associated with the LDS Church, starting out as an assistant editor at Bookcraft beginning in 1978.

[9] Bloomberg Businessweek reported in 2012 that Deseret Book was a "flailing" business when Dew took it over but that she "pulled the publisher and distributor out of the red 10 years ago.

"[5] In 2002 the company launched its Time Out for Women event series,[10] and in 2004 it acquired Excel Entertainment, which brought Deseret Book into film distribution.

[12] In June 2011, the company introduced Deseret Bookshelf, a free e-reader application for Apple and Android mobile devices, with nearly 1,500 digital titles for purchase.

In March 2003, the White House appointed her a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls at the United Nations.

[14] After a 1999 trip to Ghana, Dew began to spearhead Chapters of Hope, a program to send children's books to impoverished areas of the world.

[15] Dew has said she has a greater liking for Republican political positions, particularly on social issues, explaining that "I am a Midwestern farmer's daughter," but that she has "many, many times" voted for Democrats.

[16] Dew opened the 2004 Republican National Convention with a prayer after, she said, she had received a telephone request from "out of the blue and after she "had to ask myself if this would appear too partisan, and I decided it was never inappropriate to pray."

"[16][17] Dew was a counselor to Mary Ellen W. Smoot in the general presidency of the women's Relief Society from 1997 to 2002,[18] the first unmarried woman called to this position.

[19] In 2006, Dew was diagnosed with breast cancer, revealed as "three tiny spots, almost invisible to the naked eye," and since 2010 she has been active in promoting awareness of the disease among Utah women.

[6] Dew "drew criticism"[20] resulting from remarks she made on February 28, 2004, at a Washington, D.C., meeting of the Family Action Council International,[21] an interfaith group.

[22][23]The next month the Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons organization, which is not officially affiliated with the LDS Church, issued a statement expressing "outrage" at Dew's remarks,[21] and in September of the same year the president of the Human Rights Campaign and the strategic director of the National Black Justice Coalition called on President George W. Bush to repudiate Dew's "deeply offensive comments about LGBT Americans.