 Herzog's awards include Three CASE Circle of Excellence Awards for educational feature writing from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, a 2011 Annual Teacher's Choice Award, and an IPPY award as one of the year 2000's "10 Outstanding Books of the Year" for his travel memoir "States of Mind".Born and raised in Deerfield, Illinois, Herzog obtained a degree in psychology from Cornell University in 1990.After 18 months as a sports reporter for "The Ithaca Journal" in Ithaca, New York, he returned to Chicago and worked as a freelance writer.