Ed Adams is a professor in the School of Communications where he teaches classes in communications leadership, media management and mass communications history.
He served in academic leadership positions at BYU for 25 years, including 10 years as dean of the College of Fine Arts & Communications. He previously served as an associate dean of the college and served many years as chair of the Department of Communications. He is the founding director of the School of Communications.
His time at BYU has been marked by creating labs (Ad Lab and Public Relations Lab) and building projects – renovation of the Brimhall Building, and the proposal, planning and design of the Music Building, West Campus Office Building and the Arts Building.
As a scholar, he has published more than 50 articles as peer-reviewed articles, reviews, book chapters and biographical encyclopedia entries. His scholarly work has focused on public relations strategies among 1800s reform movements and on the business history of media. His articles have appeared in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, Journalism History, American Journalism, Public Relations Review, and The Journal of Public Relations.
He was recipient of the Brigham Young University’s Young Scholar Award (2002), the Kreighbaum Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), an annual award presented to an outstanding journalism and mass communication educator in the nation under 40 years old. It is one of the association’s highest honors (1998), and the first edition of Who’s Who Among the Media and Communications (1998).
Prior to his arrival at BYU, Adams taught at universities in Texas and Ohio. His professional experience was as an administrative director of a publishing company in Phoenix, Arizona.
He and his wife, Gwen have been married for 44 years and are the parents of five children and grandparents of 13 grandchildren.