Kenlyn Foster serves her community as Judge for Blount County, Tennessee, USA, General Sessions Court, Division II, and exercises concurrent jurisdiction as Juvenile Court Judge. Before her election in 2014, she served as an Assistant District Attorney General. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Judge Foster presides over cases involving juvenile delinquency and unruliness, child neglect and abuse, termination of parental rights, parentage, custody, and child support. She is a member of the Blount County, Knox County, Tennessee, American Bar Associations, the Tennessee Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Tennessee Council of General Sessions Judges, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. In 2017, the Tennessee Supreme Court appointed her to the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners Investigatory Committee, a role in which she continues to serve. She is the Eastern Grand Division Judicial Representative to the Tennessee State Council for the Interstate Compact for Juveniles, she is appointed to the Multidisciplinary Task Force for the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts Court Improvement Program, and she Chairs the Tennessee General Assembly’s Committee on Incarcerated Parenting Plans. She has represented Tennessee’s judiciary at the National Judicial Academy on Reasonable Efforts, the Anne E. Casey Foundation’s Family First Conference, and Project ECHO.
Under Judge Foster’s leadership, the Blount County Juvenile Court established a Model Foster Care Review Board; initiated the use of H.A.B.I.T. therapy animals; transformed unused space into trauma-informed victim waiting rooms; and established a Free Little Library in the Juvenile Court lobby. In 2023, Blount County Juvenile Court was selected as a National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ Implementation Site. In 2024, Blount County Juvenile Court was awarded grant funding to create the first Intensive Outpatient Substance Use and Mental Health Program for adolescents in Blount County. That year, the Court implemented Journey Court, a juvenile specialty court for co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. In 2025, Blount County Juvenile Court will bring a Safe Baby Court to Blount County as part of the Tennessee Zero to Three Initiative.
Judge Foster is the author of Astronaut Noodle on Planet Velocity, a children’s picture book. She is a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, a TRX Qualified Coach and Level I TRX Yoga Instructor, and a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher. She loves yoga, swimming, cycling, weight training, kayaking, and hiking. She can sometimes be found teaching a free yoga class in the park to her colleagues, attorneys, and courthouse employees. Judge Foster and her husband have three adult children and live in Blount County, Tennessee, USA.
