Judge Kristi F. Curtis was born in Dallas, Texas in 1969.  She is the daughter of Sterling and Jo Fisher, and sister to Garrett Martin Fisher (U.S. Army retired). She is married to Warren Stephen Curtis from Camden, South Carolina and they have a daughter and a son.

Judge Curtis grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, and graduated from North Central High School in 1987. Her family moved to South Carolina in 1988. She attended the University of South Carolina, graduating in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. She entered the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1992 and graduated in 1995.  During law school, she was an Articles Editor for the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal, a Legal Writing Instructor, and a member of the Moot Court Bar. Upon graduation, she worked as a Staff Attorney for the South Carolina Court of Appeals, and then as a law clerk to the Honorable Kaye G. Hearn of the South Carolina Court of Appeals.

In 1998, she and her husband moved to Sumter where she joined the Bryan Law Firm.  She practiced in the areas of business litigation, appellate practice, and as a prosecutor for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.  In 2004 she went to work for Synovus Trust Company as a Trust and Estates Officer. In 2011, Judge Curtis was appointed a full-time Magistrate for Sumter County, serving as Chief Magistrate from July of 2011 until her election to the Circuit Court bench. On February 7, 2018, she was elected by the South Carolina General Assembly as Resident Circuit Court Judge for the Third Judicial Circuit. During the course of her legal career, she has been admitted to practice in the South Carolina State Courts, the Federal District Court for South Carolina, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Curtis has been a member of the Sumter Rotary Club since 2004, and received the Avenue of Service award in 2015. She is a past President of the Sumter YMCA Board of Directors. She has served on the South Carolina Bar House of Delegates, and as a member of the Sumter County Bar Executive Committee.  She has also served as a member of the Sumter County Board of Zoning Appeals. Judge Curtis is a member of Alice Drive Baptist Church, where she has served on the Personnel Committee, the Building Committee, and as a Life Group leader for the children and youth ministries.

In her free time, she enjoys spending time at the lake with her family, water skiing, paddleboarding, and snowskiing.