Esther Dyson is the executive founder (i.e., active fulltime but reporting to CEO Rick Brush) of Wellville (wellville.net), 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 our collective future... Wellville wants to show what it looks like when we act on that fact. It wants to scale by inspiring others, not be presuming to do it all themselves.

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 startups and technologies, writing about them and actively (and with full disclosure) investing in some of them. She loves what she does and she loves all the travel it entails! Board seats include 23andMe, Luxoft, Meetup (now graduated to a new launchpad with WeWork), Pressreader, Wellpass, and Yandex. Also ExpandED Schools, Long Now Foundation, and Open Humans Foundation.

Specialties include the Accountable Net, IP and telco policy, identity management, social software, Central and Eastern Europe, startups, semantic tools, mapping tools, foundation governance, board experience (esp. "corporate regime change"), commercial space, and general aviation. She holds a BA from Harvard University and a Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center completion certificate.