With so much recent emphasis placed on the need for more women in the STEM fields, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, one might not have even noticed the addition of the A in what is now a new and improved acronym: STEAM, signifying the addition of Art into the mix as it was quickly recognized that scientists, engineers and mathematicians needed to also have creative, skilled, talented thinkers in their midst in order to be successful.

Kristin DiVona is one such creative, skilled, talented thinker, and she recently shared her unique job as a Visual Information Specialist for NASA with the students at Park View Middle School during their Career Day event. DiVona works at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts for part of her workweek, and at home in Rhode Island for a portion of the week as well. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in illustration and animation, and told the students that growing up she always loved star wars, NASA and painting.

"I did want to be an astronaut at one point, but I was good at math, science, drawing and writing, so I went to school for illustration and animation. Now, I design and draw for NASA, which combines my love for science with my love for drawing," DiVona said.

NASA takes the images that DiVona creates, and they are incorporated into brochures, posters, and logo designs.

"I also design websites," she said. "On a regular basis I am coding, drawing, designing and working with astrophysicists, illustrating images that come in to us from satellite images and from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in binary code so that people can see what a black hole might look like or what other images from the edges of the universe might look like."

Additionally, DiVona uses her artistic skills making sketches and pen and ink drawings for projects such as the Women in Science posters and postcards that went along with the release of the movie "Hidden Figures."

She noted that all of the posters are downloadable for free on the NASA website and that there are also free downloadable 3D printable images which can be utilized by the public.

DiVona later explained that she stumbled upon her position with NASA by accident, when she participated in an online sketch challenge, creating 100 days of sketches, and uploading them to Instagram each day.

"I decided I'd been spending a lot of time on the computer, and not a lot of time drawing and this challenge was something I wanted to do to bring me back to doing more drawing. I decided to make the theme of my drawings a ‘women in science’ theme. One day, someone from NASA contacted me about using my drawings for a project that they had coming up. We ended up getting together for coffee, and one thing led to another and someone there was leaving a position, and I ended up getting a job at NASA," she said.

Her job differs by the day, and by the project, and DiVona enjoys every minute of it.

"Right now I am working on a virtual reality of Casiopia," she said. "Every day I learn something new and I am never bored. I've been a science nerd my whole life and this is by far the best design job I've ever had. The people I work with are very passionate about what they do."

For more information on DiVona, visit her website at www.kristinisdesigning.com.