Her inherited love of reform brought her to the fore when the crusade swept over the United States. For several years, she was president of the Illinois Woman's State Temperance Union. With Miller, she issued the call for the Cleveland convention, and she presided over that body, in which the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (NWCTU) was organized. She was the first editor of the NWCTU's organ, later titled The Union Signal. Willing was drawn into public speaking by her temperance zeal, and soon she found herself addressing immense audiences in all the large cities of the U.S.. As one of the corresponding secretaries of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, she presented the temperance claims at conferences of ministers, and in scores of large towns in different parts of the U.S., interesting thousands of people in its work. Her other roles included superintendent of the NWCTU's Evangelistic Training Department, and president of the Frances Willard WCTU.
