Esther Dyson is the founder of Wellville, a 10-year nonprofit project to nudge society toward long-term thinking and equity by showing the social and financial value of investing in health and wellbeing for all. The Wellville team of seven people coaches leaders in five US communities as they work to improve the physical, mental, and financial health of all their residents. 

The five Wellville communities are all under 200,000 in population: Clatsop County, OR; Lake County, CA; Muskegon County, MI; North Hartford, CT; and Spartanburg, SC. The Wellville advisor for Muskegon, Esther is actively involved in overall policy and fundraising for the project. When it ends in 2024, she will focus on spreading its learnings (many from mistakes) more broadly, to other communities, to healthcare systems, to voters, and to the government, which is best-suited to invest in collective, equitably distributed health. 

Esther advocates long-term thinking, including putting externalities into pricing, such as taxing sugar and subsidizing care work (nurses, childcare workers, gym teachers, prison guards, etc.). In her spare time, she is fascinated by and invests in new business models, new technologies, and new markets (both economically and politically).