Emeritus Professor Di Yerbury recently retired as Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University.

She was Australia's first woman Vice-Chancellor, joining Macquarie University, Sydney, in January 1987. She has been reappointed by the University Council for a third term, heading an organisation of some 20,000 students (including a very large postgraduate contingent), nearly 2000 staff, and an annual income of well over $200m (with only 44% coming from Government sources).

In 1984, the year in which she was made a member of the Order of Australia, she was appointed General Manager of the Australia Council, a position she held until joining Macquarie. She still chairs the boards of several arts bodies.

She has served on many committees and boards of education, government, business and arts organisations and has conducted reviews of personnel management and industrial relations for governments in Australia and overseas (Hong Kong and Zambia). She is a Director of the Board of Citibank Australia.

She holds several positions in the international field, including that of  the longest serving President of IDP Education Australia (the International Development Program of Australian universities); Chair of the Council of ACT and NSW Directors of International Programs (CANDIP); President of the Asia-Pacific Higher Education Research Network (APHERN); and member of UNESCO's National Education Network in Australia. She is also a Board Director (Deputy Chair) and Chair of the International Committee of the Golden Key Honour Society (a worldwide student organisation). At the August 1999 International Convention of Golden Key, she was awarded The President's Award for 'Exemplary Leadership, Service and Commitment to the Society'.

She is the Australian Government's nominee on the Council of the University of the South Pacific. She has also been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Management Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong, and to the Governing Body of the Pemberley International Study Centre in Sri Lanka.

She was appointed Honorary Professor at Beijing Normal University in 1990. In 1998, an Honorary Doctorate (International Relations) was conferred upon her by Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan, in recognition of her contribution to the internationalisation of education. The University of Western Sydney also conferred an Honorary Doctorate upon her for her contribution to education and the arts, nationally and internationally in 1999.