Elizabeth Hoffman, PhD

Elizabeth Hoffman was the 20th President of the University of Colorado System (2000-2005). During her tenure, the University of Colorado completed its first billion-dollar campaign and created a new home for the health sciences center in Aurora. 

Born in 1946 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Hoffman had many women role models to look up to in her childhood. Hoffman attended an all-women’s college, Smith College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in history. At the University of Pennsylvania, Hoffman studied and earned her master’s degree and Ph.D.  also in history.  In 1975, at the California Institute of Technology, Hoffman earned a Ph.D. in social science.  She married husband, Brian Binger while at CalTech. 

Hoffman was the first woman to work for the University of Florida’s history department as an assistant history professor. She also served as an Economics professor at Northwestern University, Purdue University, and the University of Wyoming. While employed at the University of Arizona, Hoffman devoted her time to what would become the Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith’s laboratory.

Climbing up the ladders, Hoffman started working in administrative roles at the University of Arizona, Iowa State University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Hoffman became one of the most admired and credible economic minds in the world, with her command of writing. She has written two books, 50 articles and multiple book chapters. 

During Hoffman’s time, at the University of Colorado, she started new and protected employee guidelines that benefited women and families. One thing she advocated for was additional and affordable on-campus child-care programs. Hoffman added more women employees including three women chancellors, an all-women governmental affairs office team, and multiple women working in the President’s office. Hoffman’s work at the University of Colorado led to her being recognized in the Colorado community. She received awards from the Mile High Girl Scouts as a Colorado Woman of Distinction, and the Association for Women in Communication (Denver Professional Chapter) Woman of Achievement Award. Hoffman belonged to the Colorado Women’s Forum and Denver Smith Club. 

Hoffman proposed an Institute which helps research and assist those with intellectual disability. She worked with the Coleman’s on the plan and funding for the Coleman Institute. 

From 1989-1993, while the chair of the American Economic Association Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, Hoffman helped increase the number of women graduate students and university employees in the United States. Starting in 1996, Hoffman helped advise and train all the young women she mentored at the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession to become current economic professors. In 2010, Hoffman was awarded the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the American Economic Association. In 2006, Iowa State University recruited her back to become Executive Vice President and Provost, a position she held from January 2007 through July 2012.

 Hoffman retired from Iowa State University in January 2025, and is now recognized as Professor of Economics Emerita.