Feustel was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Lake Orion, Michigan, where he graduated from Lake Orion High School in 1983, and received an AS degree from Oakland Community College in 1985. He then attended Purdue University, where he was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and received both a BS degree in Solid Earth Sciences (1989) and a MS degree in Geophysics (1991). He then moved to Ontario, Canada to attend Queen's University, where he received his PhD in Geological Sciences in 1995.