Dana Alkhouri is many things: A Triple Demon who earned her bachelor’s, her master’s in public policy, and her MBA from DePaul. A journalist who covered the height of the pandemic on the ground in New York working for ABC News. And, as of a few years ago the founder of The Sidelines, a newsletter that focuses on women in athletics and wellness.

Recently, Dana shared her insights into making a career pivot, making space for women’s stories, and making it in the face of skepticism.

Driehaus College of Business (DCOB): Tell us about your current project, The Sidelines: a newsletter focused on sharing stories from women’s sports and wellness. How did it get started? What’s the most impactful advice you received along the way?

Dana Alkhouri (DA): The Sidelines is a sports newsletter by women and for all.

My friend Megan Schaltegger and I launched it in 2020. We started it because, back then, there was not a huge amount of interest in coverage of women in sports. It was such a niche industry. So we thought: let’s get ahead of it.

We initially wanted to start as a website. And we got advice from another founder to start as a newsletter instead. We’ve built out some great partnerships and gotten a great group of readers that way.

DCOB: Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur? How did you launch your career in journalism, and how was DePaul part of that?

DA: I’ve always had this entrepreneurial mindset. When I was a kid, I started this jewelry business on Etsy. During the pandemic, I started a sweatshirt line. I’m always looking for a project.

I have done the majority of my education at DePaul. That just goes to show how resourceful DePaul is and how much they offer to their students. And how well they connect with their students and stay in touch with them.

I had so many great experiences at DePaul. I studied abroad, primarily focusing on the EU and NATO. I had some really dedicated journalism professors who helped me figure out an independent study. That’s an amazing thing about DePaul. They’re so resourceful. They’re so dedicated to making sure students can pursue what they want.

DCOB: Around the time you launched The Sidelines, you were pivoting from a career in journalism to one in business. Can you talk about that transition?

DA: In 2020, I was working at ABC. I was going into the office every day. I was covering the pandemic, the election, everything that was going on. It was an eye-opening experience. But after awhile, I realized I needed a break from hard news.

I was able to enroll in DePaul’s MBA program full time — and fully online. During that time, in the summer of 2021, I started working at Goldman. I was working full time and going to school full time. It was important to me to do my MBA side-by-side with working at a bank, with working in business.

I graduated with my MBA last summer. It was a great experience – great connections, great networking.

DCOB: You’ve gotten the chance to speak to so many inspiring athletes and founders. What’s stuck with you about those conversations?

DA: There’s this question I always ask: What is your biggest piece of advice to a woman trying to break barriers in the sports industry? Their responses are so awesome.

A lot of them have talked about the need to push through. They’ve talked about not taking no for an answer. When you get criticism, it means you’re doing something right. That’s really stuck with me.

When we launched The Sidelines, people had so many questions. They were skeptical if people were going to read it. But facing criticism was my favorite part of it. Because criticism means that you’re reaching people.

Hearing criticism is also really important because, sometimes, you need a vision from the outside. As a founder, it’s easy to get tunnel vision. We’ve actually ended up incorporating content in response to criticism.

DCOB: What does entrepreneurship mean to you?

DA: Freedom. Entrepreneurship means having an idea and being able to bring it to life. And I think there is freedom in that. You create your own power. You’re doing it for yourself. And you’re doing it for the people who work with you, and work for you, and for the audience that you are creating.