She most recently served as the associate director for health workforce in the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, retiring in 2015. Until 2007, she served in the Maryland State Senate as a Senate Committee Chair, and was a candidate for Maryland's third congressional district in 2006. The seat was being vacated by Ben Cardin, who was seeking the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Senator Paul Sarbanes. She came in third place in a field of eight other Democrats, garnering 21.3% of the vote.
Hollinger was in the General Assembly for 28 years. She was elected as a delegate in 1979, and became a state senator in 1986.
Hollinger chaired the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee in the Maryland General Assembly, serving as the only woman to chair one of the four standing senate committees.
