Team

She has extensive experience in the theory and practical application of the principles of reducing health harms from drug use in Bulgaria, as well as in establishing and maintaining contacts with organizations working globally to create new and successful policies for drug users.

Her projects aim to create the right conditions to optimize Bulgarian drug policies, from criminalization to evidence-based methods and humanism. For many years she worked as an outreach worker in the needle and syringe exchange program of the Health Initiative Foundation.

She has many years of experience as a trainer of harm reduction principles of drug use designed for volunteers and professionals, including in correctional settings. She has been involved in data processing and analysis of behavioral surveys of injecting drug users.

Master of Philosophy and Bachelor of Social Activities at St. Kliment Ohridski University. She has many years of professional experience in working with at-risk groups and behaviors, with a focus on prevention of substance use and reduction of health and social harms from substance use.

She is a trainer in screening, early and brief interventions, with certifications from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the National Center on Drug Abuse. She was trained in Motivational Interviewing – Preparing People for Change at the Bulgarian Institute of Addictions.

Doctor in psychiatry. Between 1996-1997 he was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow, where he specialized in treating substance abuse in the USA, sponsored by NIDA.

He has a master’s degree in public health from John Hopkins University. Between 2000 and 2005 he is the Director of the National Center for Drug Abusers. Since 1999 he is an international coach in Motivational Interviewing (MI) and teaches Bulgarian professionals. From 2004 until 2008 he is a long-term consultant in Component 4 “Prevention of HIV in Injection Drug Users” in the program for prevention and control of HVI/AIDS in Bulgaria, financed by the Global Fund against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

At the moment he is interested in drug addiction, HIV risk along with perfecting his MI teaching and the out hospital treatment of addictions.