In 1941, Pickens was appointed to the first Loudoun County planning commission, and became the commission's chair. On her watch, Loudoun County established zoning ordinances that banned billboards; she was also head of the commission during the construction of Dulles Airport. She was also president of the Virginia Citizens' Planning Association. She led demonstrations against the Concorde as an environmental hazard in the 1970s. Pickens was named Loudoun's 1986 Citizen of the Year. She gave an oral history interview to the Loudoun County Oral History Project in 1990.
