Andy & Brianna Hoffman
Attorney & Pharmacist
It’s the people of rural Nebraska who brought Andy and Brianna “Bri” Hoffman home. After graduating at the top of their university classes, this young couple could have found employment anywhere, but they chose to come home to Atkinson instead.
“We had lots of opportunities to work in places like Sioux Falls, Omaha, anywhere we wanted to go, but this was our first choice,” Andy said. “Anyone can go to Omaha or Lincoln and get a job, but you need drive and ambition to make it here. We have a stoplight rule: We never want to live in a town that has a stoplight.”
For Bri, the draw was the slower pace of life.
“In Sioux Falls, you can spend three hours a day in traffic. We didn’t want to do that,” she said.
The couple’s roots are in North Central Nebraska and south-central South Dakota. She is a graduate of Burke, S.D., High School, and Andy graduated from Spencer-Naper High School. The Hoffmans moved to Atkinson in May 2003, after Bri graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in pharmacy. She is now head of the pharmacy department at West Holt Pharmacy, which is affiliated with West Holt Memorial Hospital in Atkinson.
She is currently working on implementing a unit dose medication procedure to increase patient safety and decrease staff time. She also works with the local nursing home to bring it local pharmacy services.
When the couple moved to Atkinson, Andy was a junior in law school at the University of South Dakota. While he finished his last year of school, he worked as a clerk for the law firm of Strope, Krotter & Gottschall, which has offices in O’Neill and Atkinson.
He recently passed the South Dakota bar and is currently licensed to practice law in both South Dakota and Nebraska. He is now an associate with the Strope, Krotter law firm.
“We chose Atkinson because it was a place we could both get jobs in our respective fields, and be close to family at the same time,” Andy said.
Most of his family lives in nearby Boyd County and in Bonesteel, S.D. Bri’s parents live in Burke, S.D. To the Hoffmans, the state boundary is just a line on the map.
“The people are the same in Atkinson as they are in Burke,” Andy said. “The people here have been just great to us - they’ve accepted us and made us feel a part of the community.”
Both Bri and Andy have become involved in community activities. Bri helps with youth ministry at their local church. Andy helps coach mock trial teams at the high schools in Atkinson, Spencer-Naper, Butte and Stuart. His Stuart team won the state championship in December and will travel to the national competition in North Carolina in May. The Hoffmans can see their neat brick home from the front door of Bri’s pharmacy.
“It’s nice to work so close to home, and our dollars go further here,” she said. “I remember growing up in south-central South Dakota and North Central Nebraska - there were tons of opportunities. I want to give our kids the same opportunities.”
Andy said, “It’s the young people who keep us here.” “We have the most talented youth in America. The teachers are great. I think our kids are getting a private school education at a public school cost. You can’t put a price tag on that.”
- Story Courtesy of the Norfolk Daily News