Alice retired after four decades of enabling mission-driven organizations to create and maintain integrity, excellence and effectiveness. She applied her skills in the fields of education, civil rights, arts, childcare and public policy, focusing largely on the interests of children from low-income families and communities of color.

Currently, Alice co-convenes the Black Alumni of Occidental College, and is a Trustee Emerita of Occidental College.

Alice retired as managing director of Bread for the World and Bread for the World Institute, a 501(c)(4) and a 501(c)(3) organization. She directed the organizing, policy, research and administrative functions of the organization. Under her leadership Bread made significant progress pushing the United States to use its resources to end hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. Bread engaged in lobbying and electoral campaign activities.

Alice was the program executive for The Atlantic Philanthropies’ Children & Youth Program responsible for Elev8. The initiative extends student learning opportunities in under-resourced schools beyond the classroom and traditional school year, provides high-quality school-based health services to children and their families, and offers community resources on school campuses. The initiative also helps students, families and partners become advocates for improving education and expanding access to critical resources in their communities.

In 1980 she co-founded and subsequently became president of Crystal Stairs, Inc., a nonprofit agency in California that improves the lives of families through childcare and development research, service and advocacy. Initially serving South Central Los Angeles, Crystal Stairs grew to be the 17th largest nonprofit in the United States founded after 1969. Crystal Stairs has the distinction of three female staff being elected to the California State Legislature.

Alice has served on numerous boards and committees that protect and expand children’s services: Crystal Stairs, Inc., the Alliance for Early Success, the California First Five Commission and the National Center for the Child Care Work Force. She was an inaugural member of the Los Angeles County Children and Family First – Proposition 10 Commission and the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. She led the local affiliates of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and the National Black Child Development Institute.

Alice has received several prestigious honors, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Martin Luther King Legacy Association Rosa Parks Award, the Los Angeles County Commission for Women’s 16th Annual Women of the Year Award – 2nd District, and the 2003 Inspiration of the Year Award, National Association of Women Business Owners, Los Angeles, Chapter. She was also named the 1995 Hunger Fighter of the Year by the California Hunger Action Coalition. In 2002 she received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Occidental College. She received the 2004 Guardian Award from the National Black Child Development Institute.

Alice has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Occidental College; a master’s degree in sociology of education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); and Ph.D. in urban planning: social development policy, School of Architecture and Urban Planning from UCLA. Born and raised in Harlem, New York, Alice comes from a long-line of social activists. She is married to a retired civil rights attorney, Joseph H. Duff. They have two adult daughters, two sons-in-law, and seven adored grandchildren.