Lynda Dean has been on the Byron Writers Festival board since 1995. She has run businesses in the natural health industry including Thursday Plantation and Organic India while being active in a wide range of community development projects. She was awarded an OAM in 1999 for services to the community and the tea tree industry. Her passion to create and support the BWF springs from the need to create a rich cultural life in the then remote country area she moved to in 1979. She believes that everyone has a story to tell and is constantly inspired by encouraging the telling of these stories.