President Emerita Elizabeth Hoffman served the University of Colorado from 2000-05. She is also a senior distinguished fellow at the Searle Center on Law, Regulations and Economic Growth at Northwestern University School of Law, and serves on numerous boards. She served on the National Science Board from 2002-08. Her published research is in the areas of Experimental economics, Cliometrics and Behavioral Economics.

Hoffman graduated from Conestoga High School in 1964. She received a B.A. in history from Smith College in 1968 and is a member of its Board of Trustees. She received an M.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969, a Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972, and a Ph.D. in social science (economics) from the California Institute of Technology in 1979.

While finishing her Ph.D. at Penn, she taught history and economics at St. Olaf College, Carleton College, and Macalester College. Her first academic position after completing her Ph.D. in history was as assistant professor of history at the University of Florida. She was recruited for the first class of economics PhD students at the California Institute of Technology, and then became assistant professor of economics at Northwestern University, assistant and associate professor of economics at Purdue University, and professor of economics at the University of Wyoming and professor of economics and law at the University of Arizona.[4]

She was a founding trustee of the Cliometric Society, which focuses on quantitative studies in history; the Economic Science Association, which focuses on using experimental techniques to study economic phenomena; and the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics.