Vladimir Poznyak, MD, PhD, a medical doctor and psychiatrist by professional background, is the
Coordinator of the WHO Management of Substance Abuse unit at WHO Headquarters in Geneva. In this role, he is responsible for the coordination and implementation of a range of activities relating to alcohol control, drug demand reduction and addictive behaviours in the World Health Organization. Dr Poznyak has been at the forefront of the WHO Secretariat’s work on development and implementation of the WHO Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, strengthening public health aspects of policy dialogues and international efforts addressing drug use and drug use disorders, also in collaboration with UNODC. He has coordinated in WHO several large international projects including those on ICD-11 revision for disorders due to substance use and addictive behaviours, injection drug use, drug dependence treatment and HIV/AIDS, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and the ASSIST package for screening and brief interventions for substance use.
Dr Poznyak received the International Award of Excellence in International Leadership from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), USA.