Officers

October 8th, 2011

Jessica Lee (Team Captain)

Jessica began dancing ballroom as an undergrad at MIT and spent two years with them before joining the Stanford team in 2008; she now competes in Novice/Prechamp Standard, and dances some Smooth too. She retains a special fondness for Foxtrot, but socially she’ll follow anything you’ll dance with her– from Bolero to West Coast Swing– and she’ll lead, too, if you’ll let her.

In her non-dance life, Jessica is a scientist, in the middle of her PhD in environmental microbiology. She also likes to ride her road bike, bake cakes, play piano, and talk about microbes. She loves the fact that ballroom is simultaneously an art, a craft, a sport, and something to do at a party; an individual activity, a partnership, and a team effort; excessively glamorous at the same time that it can be incredibly nerdy. And she enjoys any activity in which high heels are considered athletic equipment.

Jen Hawkins (Associate Captain)


Jen is a senior psychology major at Stanford and plans to pursue a Psy.D. in transpersonal clinical psychology. She joined the team her freshman year after a play she was in was cancelled by the director. She has since fallen in love with ballroom, especially samba and waltz. She currently competes at the bronze level, but hopes to add silver soon! She enjoys the camaraderie found on the team and loves the chance to get dressed up. She also enjoys salsa.

Ken Leung (Competition Coordinator)

Ken first discovered ballroom dancing when he went to UC Davis for his undergraduate studies. There, he spent 3 years learning social dancing (American Smooth, Rhythm, and Night Club), and 1 year with the Telemark Dance Troupe learning to perform solo/group Ballroom routines on stage.

After he moved back to the Bay Area, he discovered Stanford Ballroom, International Standard, competitive ballroom, and became a huge fan ever since. Having been inspired by many Stanford Ballroom veterans, as well as by the professional ballroom community, Ken aspire to dance, perform, and compete at a higher level, and look forward to the opportunity to mentor rookie members in the coming competition season.

This is his third year on the team.

Che Chao Hsu (Cardinal Classical Coordinator)

Che Chao stumbled upon dance not with two left feet, but with one leg on crutches after sustaining an ACL sprain running. Always active, perhaps overly in taking flight from first tries at Salsa, he played football, softball, ran, and worked out. A couple years after the initial stint, he learned to move to Salsa music with a stronger determination and found the joy that escaped him when commitment was lacking. He has been training, competing, and teaching DanceSport since 2006.

Che Chao loves dancing Latin dances: Cha-Cha, Rumba, Samba, Jive, Paso
Doble; Ballroom dances: Waltz, Quickstep, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese; as well as Nightclub dances: Salsa, West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, and Argentine Tango. It is the many tones of expression of music–through movements shaped with physical strength and softness; and colored with emotional sadness and happiness–he loves. Moving to train to freely dance and working to understand to forge interpersonal relationships are part of the many things about life the discipline has given him. While the first few steps his new friends taught him were forgettable, the memories remains as bright as the day they were shown. He finds inspiration in dedicated individuals and is an example no matter how many feet, anyone can dance!

Annelise Yoo Mah (The Stanford Fund Coordinator)


Annelise is the TSF coordinator. She’s a senior and working on applying to medical school! She loves Latin flair, Standard sway, and prancing around in heels and swishy skirts. Sadly, she’ll be mostly absentee this year, but if you have any questions about thanking our Stanford donors feel free to shoot her an e-mail.

Trent Lucaczyk (Publicity Officer, Off-Campus)


Trent picked up ballroom as a part-time hobby his junior year at Cornell University. He made it a full-time hobby when he discovered the big payoff in accomplishment that comes with preparing and competing in ballroom dancesport. Now researching Aerospace Engineering at Stanford, he is slowly working his way up to the wikid awesome fun dance levels, where you make those cool looking lines and such. Yeah. Engineers can dance too.

Patricia Carbajales (Publicity Officer, On-Campus)


Patricia has always loved dancing. Ever since she was a little girl and saw her mom having a great time dancing with a broom while cleaning the house, she understood the happiness and joy that comes with dancing. For her, dancing is not only a way to connect to the music, but most importantly a way to express her inner self.
For many years, Patricia has danced Swing and Salsa socially before she joined Stanford Ballroom in 2011. Originally from Spain, she is most attracted to Latin dances. Her favorite are Cha Cha, Samba, Jive and Salsa.

Because Patricia has played sports her whole life, she also has a competitive edge that gets fulfilled with the many competitive events that she got access to when joining Stanford Ballroom. When not dancing, Patricia spends her time teaching Geospatial technology at Stanford and she is always available for a good match of ping pong, foosball or badminton.

Brian Wolf (Performance Coordinator)

Brian‘s performance experience began with his high school and college marching bands, where performing and moving in time with music became a big part of his life. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he enrolled in a master’s program at Stanford. Leaving the marching band behind after finishing his undergraduate life, he decided to look for a new activity where he could meet wonderful people and still express his musicality.

International ballroom dancing was a perfect fit! Ballroom dancers are some of the friendliest people Brian has ever met. He loves the challenge, expression, and fun that ballroom dancing provides. After joining Stanford Ballroom in the spring of 2010, he joined the Stanford Ballroom Formation Team the following fall to regain the sense of group performance he had with his prior experience in the marching band. Now as Stanford Ballroom’s Performance Coordinator, he wants to present the esthetic and entertainment qualities of ballroom dancing to as many audiences as he can find.

Pamela Mao (Senior Officer)

Pamela started dancing ballroom competitively in 2005 at UC Berkeley and joined the Stanford team when she moved down to the South Bay in 2008. She served as a Beginner Dancesport coach at Berkeley and now teaches beginner classes. She loves dancing as a form of expression, a form of movement, a form of interaction, and a form of art, and especially as a form of de-stress-ment. She enjoys helping new people have fun and improve their dancing. She and her partner Ted are
competing on and off at the Novice level at this time. When she’s not dancing, she teaches English for special education students at a high school in San Jose.

Other Officers

Comments are closed.