BASIS Independent McLean Names New Head of School

BASIS Independent McLean (BIM), an age 2 to grade 12 private school in McLean, Va., recently named Paul Geise as its head of school. As a veteran educator with more than 40 years of experience, Geise excels in leadership of schools in the United States and United Kingdom, specializing in strategic plans and fostering student and community development in schools.

“Paul has a broad depth of educational experience and a dynamic ability to engage and grow a thriving academic community focused on excellence and a love of learning,” said Ian Block, CEO of BASIS Independent Schools.

Geise’s main BIM objectives are to continue to strategically cultivate community, create a strategic plan, support and develop exemplary faculty, and foster a school culture of learning and enjoyment---to be accomplished within a two-year timespan.

For the past 20 years, Geise has served as a school head at independent schools. Most recently, he served as interim president at Holy Cross High School in Waterbury, Conn. In his various roles, he has increased enrollment, created strategic plans, started assessment programs, implemented international studies programs, completed accreditations, and much more.

He also led St. Anne’s-Belfield Middle School in Charlottesville, Va., as well as managed the middle school division of TASIS, an American International School near London, England.

Geise earned a Master of Education degree from Harvard University, Master of Arts in teaching from Montclair State and a Bachelor of Arts degree in forensic chemistry from Colgate University.

He was also selected among 12 school heads worldwide as a Klingenstein Fellow at Columbia University, all but completed his mid-career doctoral program in Educational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania, and later was chosen as an inaugural member of a Fulbright program between Japanese and American teaching scholars focused on Education for Sustainable Development.

ABOUT BASIS Independent McLean:

BASIS Independent McLean is a part of the BASIS Independent Schools network. BASIS Independent Schools offers the high-achieving BASIS Curriculum, which was founded in 1998 and educates age 2 to grade 12 students at the highest international levels, preparing them to be participants, not spectators, in the 21st Century global workforce of commerce and innovation. In the 2019-20 academic year, there are 12 schools in the network, including six independent schools in California, New York, and Northern Virginia; five international schools in China; and one in Bangkok. For more information about BASIS Independent McLean, please visit https://mclean.basisindependent.com/.