[7] As a young woman, Saunders taught at South Carolina State University.

[9] In that position, she worked with and nurtured African-American women leaders, including Elizabeth Ross Haynes, Anna Arnold Hedgeman (whom she hired in the 1920s as membership secretary),[10] Dorothy Height,[11] Emma Ransom,[12] missionary Helen Curtis, Pauli Murray, Ruth Logan Roberts, Ella Baker and Eunice Carter.

[17] She considered proper training a key step to overcome racial barriers in the workplace.

In 1935, she spoke to the mayor's Commission on Conditions in Harlem, about women's work experiences with racial discrimination.

She married her first husband, dentist Dr. James E. Cabaniss, in August 1912;[24] she was widowed before their first anniversary.