She then studied operations research at George Washington University, earning an MBA in 1971 and completing her doctorate (D.Sc.)
[2] She served as president of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for the 1998 term.
[2][1] In 1984, Hoffman won both the Department of Commerce Silver Medal and the inaugural Applied Research Award of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In 2009 she became the first recipient of the Harvey J. Greenberg Impact Award for Service to the INFORMS Computing Society.
[2][1] In 2018, a team of researchers organized by Hoffman and working for the Federal Communications Commission on spectrum allocation won the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research, and Management Science.