Dr. Steven Hoffman, SCCO ’20, always knew he wanted to have a career in health care, as he enjoyed connecting with people and had a passion for helping others, but he initially ruled out one profession in particular: optometry.
This wasn’t for any lack of information about what an optometrist does. As the grandson of one optometrist and the son of two more, his exposure to the profession was pretty much immediate. He simply had a desire to forge a different path. But after a period of soul-searching, he asked his parents to connect him with another optometrist he could shadow, and with that experience, his life’s ambition came into focus. And when he enrolled at MBKU’s Southern California College of Optometry, he became the third generation of Hoffmans – along with the aforementioned grandfather and parents – to find a home at MBKU.
Beginning the Legacy
Dr. Lou Hoffman started it all. Dr. Lou Hoffman attended Pennsylvania College of Optometry, now Salus University, and graduated in 1956. As a clinical director of SCCO and member of the faculty for many years, he was influential in the early advancement of the field of vision therapy. By the time his son Dr. Bob Hoffman, SCCO ’89, developed his own interest in a career in optometry, Lou was able to give him a really important piece of advice: Go to a school with a strong clinical program. That piece of advice brought him to SCCO, where he met his future wife, Dr. Lianne Inouye, SCCO ’89. Needless to say, Bob and Lianne were pleased with Steven following in their footsteps. “We were very excited when Steven decided on SCCO,” says Dr. Inouye. “Since we are both alumni and Steven’s grandfather was faculty and clinic director, we knew he would have a great optometric education as well as clinical training.”
A True Family Atmosphere
Now Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Inouye each have their own practice, and their son, Steven, is a resident doctor at SCCO, currently working with vision therapy and pediatric care at the same institution where his grandfather pioneered it. For the Hoffmans, their experience of the famous family atmosphere at MBKU was both figurative and literal. “At MBKU, I had great classmates who became friends for life,” says Steven. “And I know that my parents had the same. Even though the scope of optometry has changed a lot over the years, it’s so great to be able to talk to my grandfather and my parents about cases and understand that the value of the profession has not changed.”