[3] She regularly made appearances in Trillin's writings – including books such as American Fried, Alice, Let's Eat and Third Helpings – often as the voice of calm reason.
[4] Trillin's interest in curriculum development led her to consult for WNET television station and help it design new approaches to educational programming.
She formed a company "Learning Designs" to produce educational television series, such as Behind the Scenes, starring the illusionist duo Penn & Teller, aiming to teach pre-teens about the creative process in the visual and performing arts.
In November 1966, Herbert Kohl published an article titled "Teaching the 'Unteachable,' The Story of an Experiment in Creative Writing", which greatly moved Trillin.
A letter she wrote to Navasky, describing her own experiences and attempting to cheer him, was later published in a book form titled Dear Bruno.
Alice and Calvin Trillin were volunteer counselors at actor Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut for children with cancer or serious blood diseases.
Alice Trillin died on September 11, 2001, aged 63, at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, from heart failure resulting from radiation damage sustained when she was treated for lung cancer a quarter century earlier, in 1976.