We are proud to announce, she’s done it again! Metaphrasis founder, Elizabeth Colón, has been awarded the 2015 Woman Business Owner of the Year by Chicago Area Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
Colón, and other award recipients, will be honored at NAWBO Chicago’s annual Celebration of Achievement Luncheon on April 27, 2015 at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park.
Elizabeth Colón is the award-winning President and Founder of Metaphrasis Language & Cultural Solutions, LLC, a national provider of interpretation and translation services. The company partners with over 600 interpreters in more than 200 languages to meet their client’s needs around the world. Elizabeth has more than 25 years of professional history providing translation and interpretation services to non-profit and for-profit environments.
Colón has created a company that provides much needed services to multi-cultural businesses. From medical to legal interpreting to general corporate language services, her unique model provides professional training for those already speaking a second language to begin a career as an interpreter. “Empowering people to take a skill they already have and apply it to the professional world is something everyone can appreciate. I believe in providing a corporate environment where we are service-minded in what we do, but also who we are,” commented founder Elizabeth Colón.
She is known for her generous donations of time and talent to educational programs and non-profit organizations such as “Voice of Love”, “Future Founders”, professional organizations, the Young Entrepreneur’s Academy and the Norwegian American Hospital Foundation. She is the recipient of the 2014 U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Small Business Person of the Year Award, Enterprising Women of the Year in 2013, the recipient of the “Mujeres Descatada” award from La Raza Newspaper, featured in Hispanic Executive Magazine, and participated in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Arts from DePaul University with a focus on Transformational Organizational Leadership.
Colón has made it both her personal and professional mission to advocate for equal access to language services for the Latino and other diverse communities by eliminating disparities and language barriers.