The senator retired from Rider University in Lawrence after 44 years of service. She received a bachelor's degree in education from Trenton State College and a master's in guidance and counseling from Rider University. She has earned doctoral credits in education at Rutgers University.

Senator Turner's legislative initiatives include mandating insurance company coverage of minimum hospital stays for women undergoing mastectomies and childbirth, providing MicroCredit Business loans for women, and protecting consumers from identity theft and unwanted telemarketing calls. She also sponsored a law that prevents publicly-funded jobs from being outsourced to foreign countries and was the prime sponsor of the constitutional amendment, approved by voters in 2013, that raised the minimum wage with an annual cost-of-living adjustment.

The senator has sponsored legislation to reduce crime by keeping violent, repeat offenders behind bars and requiring suspected gang members and drug dealers to prove their bail money is from legal sources. She helped to create and expand drug court programs statewide for first-time, non-violent offenders.

As a career educator, the senator has sponsored numerous laws to improve the quality of education and make higher education opportunities more affordable and accessible to all students. She has also been a leader on civil rights issues, introducing legislation to eliminate racial profiling and strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the community. She also sponsored the law that abolished the death penalty in New Jersey, replacing it with life imprisonment.

Senator Turner serves on the Governor's Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect, the State Council for Adult Literacy Education Services, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission. She is a commissioner of the Education Commission of the States and serves on the organization's steering and finance committees.

Senator Turner and her husband, Donald, have two children, Jacqueline and Chet, and five grandchildren, Deron, Briana, Bryson, Faith and Chandler.