Mark received his B.A. in Mathematics from California State University, Fullerton in 1985. He worked in the aerospace industry for two years, simulating the behavior of an infrared observer satellite used to track ICBMs. He then moved to San Luis Obispo and completed his graduate work at California Polytechnic State University, where he received his M.S. in Mathematics and Secondary Teaching Credential.

Currently a tenured faculty member of the Cuesta College Mathematics Division, Mark lives in San Luis Obispo and has two daughters. He is an established author, and is the coauthor with Charles P. McKeague on Trigonometry by Cengage. Mark is also creating educational materials through his own company, Turner Educational Publishing, including tutorials on the use of TI-83/TI-84 graphing calculators for college algebra, trigonometry, or precalculus courses. Mark has presented at a number of local and national mathematics conferences. His recreational interests include hiking, reading, geocaching, cycling, cryptic crosswords, and Scrabble.

Mark was honored in 1996 with the CMC³ Award for Teaching Excellence, and more recently the Cuesta College Teaching Excellence Award for 2008-2009.