Wilson has taught both undergraduate and graduate course at BYU since 1989. She regularly teaches introduction to PR, PR case studies, comms management, senior campaigns in PR, senior seminar in communications in undergraduate course work and teaches world communication systems, communication and development, communication theory and persuasion theory at the graduate level.
Wilson and her colleague, David P. Forsyth, saw a pressing need for gender and racial diversity in the Communications Department. They worked together to promote the recruiting and hiring of more women, particularly those aiming to obtain their doctorate degree.
During this time, she was also deeply involved in the first major fundraising efforts of the department to raise money for practice labs and scholarships, which continued with her appointment as department chair.
Wilson has served in many capacities throughout her successful career. In 1997, Wilson became the first female chair of the Department of Communications. Over the next three years, Wilson continued working on the image of BYU, and focused on recruiting faculty. She also led the nation in innovation by converging student media so students learned journalism on all platforms: print, broadcast and on the Internet.
She was the chair of the undergraduate curriculum committee on the Commission for Public Relations Education, where she wrote the standards for undergraduate public relations education, later published in 2006 as The Professional Bond. She has been a representative of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and has also served on PRSA’s strategic planning committee. She was chair of the Educator’s Academy in 2003 and continued to serve on their executive council. She served on PRSA’s Educational Affairs Committee from 1996-1998, as co-chair of that committee from 2003-2004, and co-chair of PRSA’s Task Force on Education and Task Force on Internships, which developed the national standards for quality public relations internships. Wilson was the national PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) faculty advisor from 1992-1996 and was faculty adviser to BYU’s award-winning Chapter of PRSSA for 10 years.
Laurie Wilson was also active in ACEJMC’s (Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications) PR division and is a regular participant in ACEJMC site teams for the accreditation of communications programs. She is also a leading expert in PRSA’s Certification for Education in Public Relations (CEPR) and leads site visits to universities to certify public relations programs, have been involved in writing and maintaining the standards used for certification. She also served on the Executive Board of the United Way of Utah County for 20 years.
Wilson has authored several textbooks used nationally and internationally in more than 200 universities including in the BYU Communications Department. For the 4th edition of her strategic communication planning text, the publisher’s leading communications textbook, she recruited a former student and colleague as a co-author, Joseph D. Ogden.
She has also planned, implemented, and conducted seminars across the country. Wilson regularly consults with corporations and nonprofit organizations on strategic communication planning, and with universities in the United States and internationally on communications curriculum, accreditation and certification.
In 2013, Dr. Wilson retired from Brigham Young University after a long and distinguished career.
