Julie Dyson received her AM (Member in the Order of Australia) in Canberra on 13th April 2007. She has been the National Executive Officer of The Australian Dance Council (Ausdance) since the Australia Council for the Arts began funding the organization in 1985. Her extraordinary contribution to dance in Australia began 30 years ago when a gathering of dance professionals concerned with all aspects of dance practice gathered in Melbourne to form a shared vision - an organization that could become a coordinated collective to advocate the cause of dance within Australian society.