About Us


Alternative Georgia was founded in 2004. Our mission is to promote evidence-based policies and interventions in addiction field. To accomplish this mission we engage in research, education and advocacy related to substance use and dependencies.

Team

David Otiashvili

David Otiashvili

Director

David Otiashvili, MD, PhD. Graduated from Tbilisi State Medical University in 1992, received qualification of Psychiatrist. Spent ten years in clinical work treating patients with substance use disorders. In 2003-2004 as a NIDA Hubert Humphrey Fellow studied substance abuse research at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. In 2014 received PhD in Health Psychology from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He is an Associate Professor of Healthcare at the School of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Ilia State University. For last decade his major focus has been addiction research and education programs in addiction science. He served as a PI and Co-I for a number of international collaborative research projects, including NIDA funded RCTs and exploratory behavioural studies. David has been involved with harm reduction and drug policy advocacy at a national and regional level. He is an official lobbyist for drug policy and drug legislation in Georgian Parliament. He serves as representative of civil society sector in Georgian Interagency Drug Policy Coordinating Council.

Irma Kirtadze

Irma Kirtadze

Researcher

Irma Kirtadze, M.D. Ph.D., – graduated from State Medical Academy of Georgia in 2006 and received the qualification in Psychiatry. Dr. Kirtadze studied public health research at the Erasmus MC, Rotterdam in 2005 and drug abuse research at the Amsterdam University. Dr. Kirtadze in 2018 received a PhD in Public Health from Ilia State University. She has experience in the clinical, epidemiological & behavioral research on substance use disorders; has experience in health program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Starting from 2010 she’s been actively involved in economic (costing, expenditure analysis, cost-benefit, optimization) studies of Medication Assisted Treatment and Harm Reduction Programs. Dr. Kirtadze has been involved with international consultancy missions related to efficiency evaluation of HIV prevention, treatment, and care programs in the European countries and Central Asia. The field of scientific interest is the evaluation of the efficiency of drug addiction prevention, treatment, and care programs in the gender context. As well as evaluating health risks associated with the use of novel psychoactive substances and the development of potential harm reduction interventions.

Mzia Tabatadze

Mzia Tabatadze

Public Health Expert

Dr. Mzia Tabatadze was graduated from Tbilisi State Medical University in 1986. She pursued an MPH degree from the University of California of Berkeley in 2001-2003. Currently she is a PhD student at School of Business of Ilia State University of Georgia. Dr. Tabatadze has over 20 years of experience in health policy and management. She has extensive experience in public health research. Dr. Tabatadze was actively engaged in number of behavioral surveillance surveys among HIV key populations groups as well as KAP studies among general population. She conducted program evaluation and sustainability research studies in various countries.

Tamar Mgebrishvili

Tamar Mgebrishvili

Researcher

She obtained bachelor's degree of Psychology and Master’s degree of Addiction Studies at Ilia State University. Since 2017 she started working for Addiction Research Center Alternative Georgia as a research assistant. Tamari is a member of Georgian Association of Addictologists. She is a co-author of annual reports on drug situation in Georgia since 2018. She is particularly interested in New Psychoactive Substance (NPS) use, nightlife drug use and substance use in women.

Lika Kirtadze

Lika Kirtadze

Project Manager

In 2013 she graduated from the Faculty of Business Engineering of the Georgian Technical University with a degree in law. Since 2015 she is a masters’ degree student of the Faculty of Business Law (LLM) of the Tbilisi Free University. She is managing and coordinating scientific and advocacy projects since 2012 in Alternative Georgia.

Mariam Sherozia

Mariam Sherozia

Research assistant

In 2020 she obtained a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and is now studying for a Master’s degree in Addiction Studies at Ilia State University. In 2022 she started working for Addiction Research Center Alternative Georgia as a research assistant. She is particularly interested in drug dependence/abuse in migrants, harm reduction approaches, and others.

Ada Beselia

Ada Beselia

Research assistant 01/04/2018-31/08/2021

In 2015 she graduated from the faculty of Psychology of Tbilisi State University . In 2018 she got her MA degree in Addiction Studies (Addictology) at Ilia State University. During her master’s studies, she started working as a research assistant at Addiction Research Center – Alternative Georgia. She has participated in several national and international conferences, forums, drug summer school and has published research papers and annual drug reports as author and co-author. Her field of interest mostly includes harm reduction approaches, drug use in nightlife settings, young/recreational users, New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), gambling and ect.

Contact

Address:
14a Nutsubidze str; Office #2
0177 Tbilisi, Georgia

Telephone:
(+995 32) 239 1166/239 6699

Fax:
(+995 32) 239 66 99