In 2001, Grace Anne Dorney Koppel was diagnosed with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The news set her on a course of aggressive rehabilitation—and advocacy.

Since January 2006, Koppel has served as a national spokeswoman and patient advocate for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to increase awareness of COPD, a group of lung diseases including emphysema, refractory asthma, chronic bronchitis and bronchiectasis that affects some 24 million Americans, 12 million of whom are undiagnosed and untreated. She has appeared on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, The View, and other major venues to draw attention to NHLBI’s "Learn More Breathe Better" campaign.

A graduate of Fordham University (B.A.), Stanford University (M.A.), and Georgetown Law (J.D.), Koppel is a practicing attorney and business manager for her husband, former Nightline anchor Ted Koppel.  She is President of the Dorney-Koppel Family Charitable Foundation, one of whose missions is to provide start-up funding for Pulmonary Rehabilitation Centers.  She will serve on the Board of Directors of the COPD Foundation beginning Fall 2012.