Diva Diniz Corrêa was born in 1918 in Avaré, São Paulo, Brazil, being the younger of three sisters and the only one to attend college.

[1] In 1939, she began her studies in Natural History at the Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras of the University of São Paulo.

[1] In 1948, Diva completed her doctoral thesis on the embryology of Bugulina flabellata, a bryozoan, and received the highest grade possible from the committee, which was directed by Ernst Marcus and Paul Sawaya.

[1] From October 1958 to February 1959, Diva had an internship at the Institute of Marine Science, University of Miami and visited the U. S. Virgin Islands.

[3] In 1962, she had an internship at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Curaçao from a grant given by the Dutch government, resulting in a survey of the nemerteans from the region and the description of a turbellarian.