Miranda Summers Lowe was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, but spent most of her childhood in Muncie, Indiana. Her parents worked as professors at Ball State University until her mother passed away of cancer. Summers Lowe’s father moved to the Washington, DC, area, but she remained in Indiana where she graduated from the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and the Humanities in 2001. Despite a lifelong interest in the military, she enrolled at George Washington University where she matriculated during the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trace Centers and the Pentagon. This event inspired her to enlist in the Army National Guard. While serving as a Unit Supply Specialist in the Guard, she continued her education at the College of William and Mary where she earned a bachelor’s degree in History and Government in 2006, weeks before deploying to Iraq. Summers Lowe served a one-year tour in Iraq, during which time she worked as a Black Hawk Helicopter Door Gunner. Upon returning to the United States, she enrolled at Brown University where she cofounded the Student Veterans Association and earned a master of arts in Public Humanities in 2009. At the time of this interview, Summers Lowe was working as a Congressional Fellow at the United States House of Representatives as well as a Modern Military Curator for Armed Forces History at the Smithsonian Institution.