Lila Givens attended the University of Georgia where she studied English and Psychology with the goal of being a high school English teacher. Her career took a slight detour when she joined City Year, an AmeriCorps program, in San Antonio, TX after graduating from college. After her two years of service, she then worked for three years working as a Program Manager with City Year in Washington, DC and then Manchester, NH. Then Lila transitioned to working in Belmont, MA for The PEAR Institute: Partnerships in Education and Resilience. PEAR works to support schools and afterschool organizations to meet the social emotional development of their students. She graduated in May 2018 with her MPA with plans to spend her career working towards promoting education equity in our public schools.

She moved back to her home state of Georgia (just in time to volunteer for Stacey Abram's campaign!) where she currently lives with her partner, her sister, her dad, and their three dogs, a cat, and a horse. She currently works for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation as the Atlanta-area Program Manager for the Resilience in School Environments (RISE) initiative. The RISE Initiative focuses on supporting districts and schools top adopt social-emotional health policies and practices that support staff resilience. She loves rock climbing, making ceramics, drinking mezcal, and playing Super Mario Brothers on the “old school” Nintendo.