Taina Litwak, CMI, graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BS in Biology and a BFA in Printmaking  in 1979 and began her illustration career.   She spent 10 years as staff illustrator with the Walter Reed Biosystemactic Unit at the Smithsonian Institution and left in 1994 for full time freelance work.  She has been a Board Certified medical illustrator since 1994.  Since 2010 she has been the staff illustrator with the Systematics Entomology Lab of the US Department of Agriculture, at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC.

She works in both traditional and digital media, black and white and color. Most of her illustratiuon work is digital painting and her fine artwork is acrlyic and collage on canvas.  Her markets have include scientific journals and magazines, trade and textbooks, advertising, museum and medical legal exhibits and research institutions.  Her clients include the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Science Magazine), Carnegie Institute, US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Entomological Society of America, Interlink Healthcare, Inc., Maryland Public Television, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Science News, Smithsonian Institution, StackPole Books, Timber Pres, Wm. C. Brown Communications, Inc., etc.

Her volunteer work with professional arts organizations includes 6 years on the Board of Directors of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (GNSI), as president and as treasurer, and 4 years on the Board of the Vesalius Trust.  She served as Executive Director of the Washington Women’s Arts Center for one year and as a Board member for 3 years.  In the capacity as GNSI  representative, she also served on the Board of the 1994 World Congress on Biomedical Communications.  She is currently an officer of both the local GNSI chapter, the Illustrators Club of Washington and on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Collective Rights Lisencing (ASCRL).

Chapter

• Litwak, Taina R. 2024. "Visual storytelling as a catalyst for climate science communication." In Storytelling to accelerate climate solutions. Coren, Emily, editor. Springer. 2024