Mark Krancer is an award-winning photographer, author, and entrepreneur whose journey reflects both resilience and creativity. After overcoming the challenges of reentering society following a conviction, he rebuilt his life from the ground up, founding Kram Kran Photo in 2016 as the cornerstone of his artistic career.
Today, Mark serves as the official photographer for numerous nonprofits, including the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), while also teaching photography and openly sharing his story of recovery, freedom, and sobriety. His work has earned national recognition, with a Pulitzer Prize nomination, multiple Scenic America contest wins, and two Florida Preservation Awards for outstanding Media and Communication.
Each month, The Carrier Pigeon Post publishes and distributes, free of charge,
a 4-color, 8-page, hope-filled, newsprint paper. We do so because we believe in the possibilities afforded by narrative-inspired imagination.
The Carrier Pigeon Post encourages cultural competency and teaches cultural literacy. The paper features short, 300-500 word stories, written at a 6th-grade level, specifically crafted and curated for those who have been incarcerated. The articles feature narratives, paintings, sculpture, photography, landmarks, political figures, celebrities, literature, historical events and documents, monuments, multicultural folktales, finance, and science.
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It all started with some simple correspondence with a few incarcerated individuals. Then some books were sent to those incarcerated, books filled with stories that proved liberative to those confined to a cell.
Over the course of a decade, one at a time, books were slowly but surely sent to various incarcerated persons in institutions all over the state of Florida. Word, slowly but surely, made its way back about the value and importance of these books, about how what was found inside the books,the stories they told, inspired and nurtured hope. The desire was for more—to have repeated and widespread reach, to impact more people, more often, and to inspire and to accommodate long-term intellectual growth. And so, The Carrier Pigeon Post was born.
Staff and Board of Directors for The Carrier Pigeon Post
Dr. Sonya Shetty Cronin brings 20 years of experience as a university professor, including study abroad international programs, and is a published academic author. She has sent books into prisons for over a decade and is the co-founder of a reentry home where she worked directly with those who have experienced incarceration. She has seen the power of story give meaning and direction to the lives of both aimless and anxious college students and formerly incarcerated.
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Hannah Katanic brings over seven years of experience in UX/UI design, product development, and digital communication. She has developed websites, publications, and visual systems for both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. As Associate Director of The Carrier Pigeon Post, she oversees concept to print publication layout, digital production, and web design. Katanic combines technical precision with user-centered design to create accessible communication tools across digital and print platforms.
Dr. Carey C. Newman brings 35 years of experience as a university professor, scholar, and author. Newman has spent 30 years as an academic book publisher and editor, overseeing 800+ academic books into print. As a book editor, Newman taught authors the craft of storytelling. Newman has decades of experience across the social sciences, humanities, and professional disciplines.
Joseph Gans is the owner of Au Peche Mignon, a French pastry shop in North Florida. As a small business owner for 23 years, Joseph has had the pleasure of employing and working alongside those who were formerly incarcerated. He brings to Carrier Pigeon this experience, as well as his resourcefulness, attention to niche and artifact, and his entrepreneurial business expertise.
Dr. Micah McCreary is the President and John Henry Livingston Professor of Theology at New Brunswick Theological Seminar in New Brunswick, New Jersey, as well as a licensed clinical therapist. He is experienced in support structures for those incarcerated and those reentering society. Dr. McCreary is well versed in the multifaceted aspects of incarceration’s effects on families and minority communities.
Chloe Scott is an undergrad at the University of Central Florida. At UCF, she volunteers with the Florida Prison Education Project to inform students about the merits of educational programs for those incarcerated. In addition, she is a board member of UCF's Students For Education in Prison, which aims to teach students about the reality of our justice system. She is a tutor for the Adult Literacy League, helping older students improve their reading, speech, and writing skills.
Advisory Experts for The Carrier Pigeon Post
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Marcia Alesan Dawkins (PhD University of Southern California, MA New York University) is a senior research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership, specializing in communication and futurism. Prior to joining CCL, she was an award-winning professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where students fondly referred to her as a “human catalyst.” She is the author of Eminem: The Real Slim Shady (Hip Hop in America) and Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity.
Mark Krancer is an award-winning photographer, author, and entrepreneur whose journey reflects both resilience and creativity. After overcoming the challenges of reentering society following a conviction, he rebuilt his life from the ground up, founding Kram Kran Photo in 2016 as the cornerstone of his artistic career. Today, Mark serves as the official photographer for numerous nonprofits, including the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), while also teaching photography and openly sharing his story of recovery, freedom, and sobriety. His work has earned national recognition, with a Pulitzer Prize nomination, multiple Scenic America contest wins, and two Florida Preservation Awards for outstanding Media and Communication.
Tanaine Jenkins is an award-winning Recidivism Strategist, Consultant, and State Organizer for REFORM Alliance, leading the charge to dismantle the Second Sentence faced by returning citizens. A TEDx speaker, best-selling author of From Prison to President, and founder of Second Sentence Awareness, Tanaine has transformed her lived experience into a catalyst for systemic change. Her leadership has earned her the Johnnie Barnett Harrison Award, the Florida Justice Center Advocate of the Year, and the 2025 Advocacy and Justice Champion Award. Featured in Forbes, The CW, and PBS, Tanaine continues to inspire and equip justice-impacted individuals to reclaim their narratives and build lives beyond barriers.
Amir Hussain is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, the Jesuit university in Los Angeles. His own specialization is the study of contemporary Muslim societies in North America. His academic degrees (BSc, MA, PhD) are all from the University of Toronto where he received a number of awards, including the university’s highest award for alumni service. He served as President of the American Academy of Religion in 2023, the world’s largest scholarly organization for the study of religion. He was an advisor for the television series The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, and appears regularly on Ancient Aliens, History’s Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne, Holy Marvels with Dennis Quaid, and The UnXplained with William Shatner. He is the author or editor of seven books and over 60 scholarly articles about religion.
John Kutsko is the Executive Director of Atla, a theological library association that is committed to advancing the study of religion and theology worldwide. John studied Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (PhD Harvard University, MA University of Michigan). John has worked in academic and religion publishing for three decades and cares deeply about religious literacy and education, the public understanding of religion, and religious freedom. He is contributing editor of The SBL Handbook of Style, author of Between Heaven and Earth, (SBL, 2000), and co-editor of The King James Version at 400. Among the articles he has written are “Compromise as a Biblical Value” in The Bible in Political Debate and “The Curious Case of the Christian Bible and the U.S. Constitution” in The Bible in American Life.
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