Jessica Turnley Obituary

Jessica Glicken Turnley

Sept. 5, 1953-

March 18, 2026

Jessica Glicken Turnley was born September 5, 1953 in Los Angeles, CA. She received a double bachelor's degree in Anthropology and English Literature from UC Santa Cruz (1974), a Masters in Social Anthropology from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1976), and a Masters in Cultural Anthropology and a PhD in Anthropology and South and Southeast Asian Studies from Cornell (1982). Her PhD program required 18 months of life with a family in Indonesia, funded by a Fulbright grant. Creative use of her skills in cultural anthropology allowed her to work in marketing and public relations in the startup years of a tech company in Silicon Valley.

She moved to New Mexico in 1988, taking part in and leading the nascent tech community of the Middle Rio Grande entrepreneurial community and the emerging world of tech transfer. Simultaneously, she worked in the NGO community, starting and running a micro-economic non-profit called WESSTcorp, which almost 40 years later is still serving those who want business startup help. She worked as a technical staff member for Sandia National Laboratories. She moved back to the world of small business, starting Galisteo Consulting Group Inc. through which she served the environmental community with contracts through the EPA and the UN, and a broad spectrum of the national security community including intelligence offices, special operations forces, Sandia National Labs, offices in the Pentagon and others. She spent her last years at The Neighborhood in Rio Rancho, where she held several positions on the leadership council of the Residents' Association.

Her non-work interests included traveling and cycling. She began long-distance cycling in 1974 as a means of transportation to an early morning job in Santa Cruz and it developed into her primary sport. She rode through the Santa Cruz mountains, did two unsupported trips across the Sierra Nevada and back, and rode from Santa Cruz, to Los Angeles, along Highway 1. She traveled extensively within the United States and internationally for both business and pleasure.

Jessica passed away peacefully from complications following a severe spinal cord infection. She is preceded in death by parents Milton and Ida Glicken and her brother Harry Glicken. She is survived by her sister Anne Fairbrother (Philomath, Oregon) and two nieces whom she loved as surrogate daughters: Jennifer Wilder (Canby, OR) and Alicia Crisp (Santa Barbara, CA).