Alice Woodard Fordyce was born in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1905. She was the sister of Mary Lasker and graduated from Smith College in 1928 after spending her junior year in France studying at the University of Grenoble and the Sorbonne. She married architect Allmon Grant Fordyce in 1939 and they had one son, James Woodard Fordyce. Alice Fordyce's first job after graduating was as Assistant Director of Fashion Publicity at Lord and Taylor. In 1933 she became Assistant Director of Public Relations for the Rockefeller Center, a position she would hold until 1940. Fordyce was additionally involved in a number of medical and social organizations. She was Executive Vice President of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation and organized the annual Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards. She also served on a number of advisory boards and committees such as the information committee of the American Cancer Society, the National Organization for Rare Diseases as well as committees for the New York Health and Planning Advisory Committee, the National Council on Drugs and the American Museum in Britain. Fordyce was also a high-ranking member of the National Association for the Southern Poor and the American Impact Foundation. She was a founding member of the National Museum for Women in the Arts. Alice Fordyce died in 1992 in New York City.

The Alice Fordyce Papers include personal correspondence, organization records, speeches, and an audio recording of an interview conducted by Sophia Smith Collection Director Susan Grigg in 1991. The collection focuses primarily on Fordyce's volunteer work and membership in such organizations as The American Museum in Britain, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the National Organization for Rare Disorders, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the National Association for Southern Poor, the John E. Fogarty International Center Advisory Board, and the American Impact Center. Files for these organizations include general mailings, direct correspondence, mailing lists, fiscal reports, press releases and clippings. There are also files pertaining to Dr. Robert Newman of the Beth Israel Medical Center and methadone treatment, as well as a file on an exchange trip between U.S. and Chinese scientists in 1977.