Esther Dyson is the executive founder of Wellville, a 10-year nonprofit project dedicated to demonstrating the value of long-term investment in health and equity. The benefits accrue over time and not always to the investors directly, but overall human bodies and minds are the key to the collective future. Wellville wants to show what it looks like when humans act on that fact. Wellville works in five small communities (Clatsop County, OR; Lake COunty, CA; Muskegon County, MI; North Hartford, CT; and Spartanburg, SC), advising local leaders on scaling local initiatives in areas such as early childhood development, diabetes/obesity reduction, mental health support/trauma-informed care. It advocates a data-rich approach with learning and accountability along the way.

Esther spends the other 50% of her time exploring new space, health and IT start-ups and technologies, writing about them and actively (and with full disclosure) investing in some of them. She sits on the boards of BAMF Health, Element 3 Health, PressReader, SWVL and Yandex, as well as nonprofits Charity Navigator, ExpandED Schools, Long Now Foundation and The Commons Project.  Her past seats include 23andMe, Evernote, WPP Group, XCOR Aerospace and the Personal Genome Project.