Public Communication was responsible for overseeing mass media on all levels, local all the way up to international. Directors for Public Communications included Paul C. Richards (1978-1991), Margaret Smoot (1991-1994), Brent Harker (1994-1997). In 1997, Lee Bartlett assumed control of Public Communications and the name was changed to University Communications.

The main function and purpose of Public Communications was to act as the official university channel for interacting with mass media at local, state, regional, national, and international levels. This meaning they worked with broadcasting on campus, various publications including BYU Today, and Fine Arts News and Features.

The director of Public Communication reported to the president of University Relations. In 1992, with the creation of the Vice-President of Advancement, Public Communications was then under the care of Ronald G. Hyde, Vice-President of Advancement.

Prior to 1978 this unit was called the Brigham Young University News Bureau (1952-1978). The organization has been called University Communications ever since 1997 when the Public Communications Department was abolished.

Janet J. Rex (1941-2015) was a Mormon office and financial manager in Utah.

Janet Jacobs was born on January 31, 1941 in Ogden, Utah to Joseph Smith and Leone Perry Jacobs. She was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 8, and grew up in Utah and California. She completed her high school education as salutatorian of Carlsbad High School, and then returned to Utah to attend Brigham Young University. She graduated with her bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, Human Development, and Family Relations in 1963. During this time she married Norman Dale Rex in Salt Lake Temple on September 15, 1961. The couple had six children.

After graduation she and her husband moved to the Willamette Valley, Oregon where they worked a family farm. After her husband's death in 1982 she returned to Utah, and worked in the BYU Army ROTC, Air Force ROTC, Information Management and Communications, and University Communications departments. At the university she earned a Master's of Public Administration degree in 1995. She retired from BYU in 2007.

Janet Jacobs Rex passed away on January 7, 2015 in Springville, Utah.