Matthew F. K. McDaniel grew up in Social Circle, Georgia. He graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1996 with a BA in history. He received a Master of Historic Preservation degree from the University of Georgia in 2002 and a Master of Arts degree in history from Louisiana State University in 2007. McDaniel has more than a decade of cultural resources experience as an architectural historian, historic preservation planner, museum director, and archivist. He works as an architectural historian with Mulkey Engineers and Consultants. He lives in Columbus, Georgia, with his wife, Dorothy, and daughter, Lucy May.