Red Burns is a professor of communications and chair of the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Founded in 1979, the program is an internationally recognized incubator for new ideas on the creative use of digital media, multimedia and telecommunications.

Burns began her work in new media in 1971, when she co-founded the Alternate Media Center, a research and implementation center for new technologies. During the 1970s and 1980s, she designed and directed a series of telecommunications projects, including two-way television for and by senior citizens, telecommunications applications to serve the developmentally disabled, and one of the first field trials of Teletext in the United States. These projects led to the creation of ITP.

Burns serves as a member of the Mayor's Council on New Media in New York City. She also serves on Governor Pataki's Task Force on New Media and the Internet and is a member of the board of New York New Media Association.

Widely recognized for her work, Burns has received a number of awards including the Matrix, and Crain's All-Stars Educator's Award. She has also been named one of Newsweek's 50 for the Future, one of Silicon Alley Reporter's 100 Top Internet Industry Executives in New York and one of Crain's 100 Most Influential Women in Business in New York. She received the Mayor of New York's Award for Excellence in Science & Technology.

Burns' current projects include a CD-ROM on chaos theory for Harper Collins and the Electronic Neighborhood, an interactive cable-telephone experiment funded by Nynex and Viacom.