Burns played a large role in the National Woman's Party. She worked in virtually every aspect of the organization at one time or another. Specifically, she was a chief organizer, lobby head, newspaper editor, suffrage educator, teacher, orator, architect of the banner campaign, rallying force, and symbol of the NWP. In Burns 'suffrage schools', she taught women how to conduct automobile campaigns, lobby, and work with the press, which they continued during the war. She was savvy with working with the media and supplied two hundred news correspondents with frequent news bulletins.