by KARA SCHWEISS
With courage and wit, Danielle Herzog is straightforwardly sharing her experience of recurring breast cancer.
“Who I am is someone who tries to find the humor,” she said. “I was very honest on social media of what I was going through – the good, the bad, the ugly, the funny – and that was helpful to me, to let the people who love me, care about me, know what was really happening.”
She’s often funny, but Herzog can also be devastatingly frank.
“Four years ago, I had a lumpectomy and radiation, but this time, when I was diagnosed, I had double mastectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy and chemotherapy… “I had really, really hard moments. I had a lot of crying in a car with my husband after doctor appointments,” she said. “And, you know, those terrible low moments, they didn’t last long. I don’t sit in those moments; I never have sat in those horrible moments. I sit for a little while, and then I just can’t stay like that. I have to move forward and get through it.”
Herzog’s version of moving forward goes beyond just regaining her health. It includes taking big steps in her career as an educator and in her passion work as a writer. Her current title is Coordinator of District Special Projects for Westside Community Schools, and Herzog has also served the district as an assistant principal and school counselor.
“(What) really changed the trajectory of my educational career was when I had the opportunity to be a school counselor, and that really is where I feel like I gained a different perspective in education, and then to take that into my role as assistant principal, and then eventually in my current role as coordinator,” she said. “It really gave me a different side of students and family.”
Since 2022, she’s also developed and taught graduate-level school counseling coursework at UNO as an adjunct professor in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. Herzog earned her master’s degree in counseling from UNO in 2017 as well as her certificate in elementary and middle school administration/principalship in 2022.
As a freelancer, Herzog has published articles in the Washington Post and Huffington Post, and was known locally as a columnist for the Omaha World Herald’s former Momaha publication. This past May, she published her first book, a children’s picture book titled “What Are You, Lou?” with a theme of identity and self-acceptance.
“It was very much inspired by the students that I’ve had over the years, especially as a counselor,” Herzog said. She added that there are glimmers of her own children, now teenagers (who also provided early critiques), in the characters of her next book, a middle-grade mystery novel slated for a Fall 2025 release.
Herzog said her career, book projects, marriage and children keep her busy and motivated. And that defines her far more than her illness does.
“I feel like I’ve been given this gift of life… Your life doesn’t stop when you get cancer, right?” she said. “All of the other things keep going.”
