Growing up, I realized that children are a product of their environment, so let me tell you a little bit about mine: I grew up in Secaucus, N.J., a town called “the Jewel of the Meadowlands.” My suburban hometown exists within a large ecosystem of wetlands, the Meadowlands, through which the Hackensack River flows. But with post-agricultural pig farm effluent and debris from New York’s train station decay being dumped into the area, the Meadowlands became a jewel in need of polishing.

Secaucus is working to recover the natural marshes by designating them as protected so fewer apartment complexes can be built and begin to sink a few years down the road, which has happened in the past. The town became environmentally conscious, and existing within that environment, I did the same.

In high school, I worked with the Secaucus Environmental Department for over three years as part of the Next Generation Community Leaders, or NGCL, program created by the Lindsey Meyer Teen Institute. Little did I know just how much this experience would influence my life. Throughout that time, I learned about climate change, the planet’s environmental challenges, and the actions we need to take to reduce our footprint. I helped implement a plastic bag and Styrofoam ban, designed a food waste composting system at my high school and local gardens and created eco-friendly living PSAs. I canvassed to promote eco-friendly living and educated residents on how to compost at home.

I also certified local businesses as “green,” depending on whether they followed practices set by the Sustainable Jersey network. These practices included recycling, reducing food waste, not using Styrofoam, etc. My contributions to the environmental department helped Secaucus to earn recognition from Sustainable Jersey as a Silver Certified Community.

That experience showed me how local actions can create change. By educating residents in Secaucus, we altered their behaviors, if even slightly, to be more environmentally conscious. Residents began to grow produce in the community gardens, compost at home and reduce their plastic bag usage. I witnessed how humans responsible for harming the planet have the potential to make changes to fix it and make it better for future generations. From that day forward, I carried that responsibility with me.

I will be honest: I don’t know the current status of those projects I worked on in Secaucus. I hope that residents are still composting at home and that those businesses continue their green practices.

I began my journey into learning about sustainability at USC with a major in industrial and systems engineering and a minor in law and public policy. Although these are not fields directly tied to the climate ecosphere, my advocacy in Secaucus made me realize that a systematic mindset and policy knowledge would be strong tools with which I can effect change within both the government and private sector in advocating for larger-scale sustainability solutions. With the opportunities provided by USC, I knew I could get involved in environmentalism and sustainability without having to be an environmental science major.

“We have canvassed [local] youth … and discovered that their top environmental priorities are cleaner air, green spaces and green buildings,” says Alyssa Jaipersaud, a member of the L.A. County Youth Climate Commission.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

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If you asked freshman Alyssa what her ultimate career goal was, she would have said, “Facilitate systemic change within the bureaucracy through ecological and climate-preservation policies to make society more sustainably conscious.” I wrote this on an index card and kept it in my backpack throughout college to constantly remind me of the goal because being an environmentalist can be discouraging, given the current climate.

Since then, I think I would have made freshman Alyssa proud. I was accepted into the USC Student Sustainability Committee and became a mentor to new members. The SSC acts as a representative for the student body within the Presidential Working Group for Sustainability. We work on projects such as getting reusable takeout containers in dining halls, ensuring ongoing campus construction is adhering to green practices, and creating a central physical space where sustainability-minded students can gather.

As a member of the SSC, I ensured that sustainability would become a standard educational practice at USC and change student behaviors toward respecting their environment. I continued my education at USC by pursuing a master’s in sustainable engineering, and I have earned the distinction of a National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges Scholar by focusing on sustainability.

Alyssa Jaipersaud poses for a portrait at Exposition Park Rose Garden.

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

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My environmental pursuits have culminated in my becoming a Los Angeles County Youth Climate commissioner in the world’s first such organization. We have canvassed the youth in L.A. County and discovered that their top environmental priorities are cleaner air, green spaces and green buildings.

Now, as a member of the legislative committee, I track all federal and state measures that relate to these priorities and bring them to the attention of the county Board of Supervisors so that they can weigh in on whether the legislation should be amended, supported or rejected. We are working actively to support legislation currently going through the U.S. Senate that would call for establishing opportunities for youths to be involved in policy development so they can ensure a healthy environment for their future and those to come.

Since children are a product of their environment, we should help future generations have a good environment to live in. With the environment constantly changing due to global warming, future generations will have a chance only if we work to make the world sustainable starting today. Instead of forcing future generations to learn how to survive to fix the environmental mistakes we are making today, they should have the opportunity to live without the repercussions of the past.

I witnessed the negative effects of a mistreated environment in my hometown, and I want to make sure future generations aren’t suffering from the consequences of what we are doing. With a sustainability mindset, local changes can influence the politicians and create the systemic change needed to get the biggest offenders under control. One of the significant steps is behavioral changes, which can begin locally and be brought by people not even studying in the environmental field, just like me.

Alyssa Jaipersaud earned a bachelor of science in industrial and systems engineering with a minor in law and public policy at USC and is also completing a master’s of science in sustainable engineering. She is setting her sights on a full-time role in the sustainability industry either as a consultant or practicing engineer.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has barred a Beverly Hills obstetrician-gynecologist from practicing at its facilities after an investigation into “concerning complaints from patients,” according to a spokesperson.

Dr. Barry Brock, a longtime physician who has advertised his low rate of cesarean section births, has had his hospital privileges terminated and the matter reported to the Medical Board of California, according to Cedars-Sinai.

“The type of behavior alleged about Dr. Brock is counter to Cedars-Sinai’s core values and the trust we strive to earn every day with our patients,” its spokesperson said.

Brock, 74, has denied any wrongdoing and said he had surrendered his privileges without any “fact finding” or “hearing on the merits” of the allegations. Cedars-Sinai did not immediately respond to those claims.

In August, weeks after his privileges at Cedars-Sinai were suspended pending an investigation, Brock emailed current and former patients to announce he was retiring from medicine at the end of the month, saying the “uncertainty of how long this process will take” left him unable to deliver the care his patients would expect.

Neither Cedars-Sinai nor the medical board would discuss details of the allegations, saying they were confidential under the law.

Nine former patients have spoken with The Times about alleged experiences with Brock and two shared complaints they sent to Cedars-Sinai.

The written complaints and other records — including complaints to the state medical board and police reports — allege inappropriate remarks, unnecessary physical examinations, a botched medical procedure and the pressuring of a patient to undergo a vaginal birth when she sought a cesarean section.

Brock, who was in private practice and not employed by Cedars-Sinai at the time of his termination, denied any accusations of sexual misconduct and said “these few anonymous allegations” were not indicative of his skills or “my character that I have shown day-in and day-out in my practice and in the delivery room for 46 years.”

He said Cedars-Sinai had only offered a summary of the complaints, and that it was “not a fair process” to be asked to defend himself without being able to identify the patients involved.

“Any claim that I performed a medical examination or procedure for anything but a medical purpose or conducted it in a way for my own personal gratification, to discourage C-Sections, or to sexually harass a patient is an outrageously false claim,” Brock told The Times.

In one complaint filed with the state medical board, a patient wrote: “Dr. Brock commented on the size of my breasts, proclaiming that my husband ‘must be enjoying these.’ This comment was made during an impromptu and forced breast exam.” (The Times is not naming the patient, as the case involves an accusation of sexual assault.)

Brock, responding to the allegation, told The Times that “this is not the type of comment I would ever make. I have performed clinical breast exams on thousands of women, and I am looking for medical issues.”

When the patient was admitted to Cedars-Sinai a week after her due date with low amniotic fluid, “Dr. Brock ordered the nursing staff to do everything possible to facilitate a natural delivery, which became torturous for me,” she wrote in her medical board complaint. “Mine and my husband’s requests to Cedars staff for a different OBGYN to deliver our baby fell on deaf ears.”

The patient wrote that she was diagnosed with an infection as labor wore on, and that her fetus’ heart rate plummeted. Brock eventually performed an emergency C-section roughly 20 hours after labor began.

The baby emerged blue and unresponsive, according to hospital records The Times reviewed, and required resuscitation.

The patient wrote that Brock’s first comments to her after birth were not about her infant’s condition, but about her vagina.

“After the surgery, Dr. Brock proclaimed that I would stay ‘nice and tight down there,’ ” she wrote in her medical board complaint.

Brock said in response that without sufficient information to review the patient’s medical records, “I cannot state what occurred here. If patients request a C-Section, I do not deny one and do what is best for the patient and the baby. I have done elective C-Sections throughout my career.”

As for the alleged comment, “I never use the words “tight” to describe the vaginal canal,” Brock said.

Another patient who complained to Cedars-Sinai also reported her allegations to the Beverly Hills Police Department. As of mid-September, Brock said he hadn’t been contacted by the department.

In a police report reviewed by The Times, the patient described going to a gynecologist in 2020 to have him “flip” a breech baby. She said the doctor performed breast and vaginal exams on her before doing an ultrasound and made comments about her body, such as remarking on her not having stretch marks, the police report said.

The woman found his remarks to be “unprofessional” and said they “caused her to feel uncomfortable,” and said she felt the breast exam was unnecessary, according to the police report. It does not name the doctor, but the woman identified him as Brock.

The episode “made her feel like she had been taken advantage of,” the police report stated.

Guidance from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that an ultrasound is necessary before attempting the procedure, but does not mention any other physical exams. Experts said performing a breast exam was not standard for the procedure, although a breast exam might be undertaken for other reasons, such as initiating care with a new patient.

Brock said such exams were standard for his new pregnant patients.

“Any patient who believed that they could simply show up at a new OB-GYN office and expect that physician to not perform a physical … did not understand the process of becoming a new patient,” he wrote. “If the patient had a physical issue that was missed due to me not performing a physical or breast exam, I would have been legally responsible for malpractice.”

As for his alleged comments, “I do not recall any exact instance of commenting on the lack of stretch marks in an inappropriate way,” he wrote. “However, there have been patients who did not have any stretch marks well into their pregnancy and when asked if it is possible to avoid stretch marks entirely, I have made comments such as ‘you are lucky.’ ”

A third former patient, who did not complain to Cedars-Sinai before the suspension, filed a complaint against Brock to the medical board in April and with Beverly Hills police in July. The doctor’s name was redacted from the police report copy provided to The Times; the patient confirmed it was Brock.

During her second pregnancy in 2022, the woman said Brock made comments about her body so frequently that she requested a chaperone be present during her visits with him, according to the police report.

Following delivery of her second child, Brock spent an unusually long time suturing what he said was a small labial tear, she told police and the medical board.

The sutures remained tight and painful weeks after the birth, she wrote in the medical board complaint. When she described the problem during a follow-up appointment, the woman wrote in the medical board complaint, Brock “told me ‘if I didn’t like the way it looked [the stitching of my vagina], because I wanted to get back into porn, he could do a corrective procedure for me.’ ”

Brock denied making such remarks, saying that “I would never say or imply that a patient could get ‘back into porn.’ ” He also said he had never been informed that any patient had asked for a chaperone due to comments on their body.

In her complaint, the patient wrote that she ultimately left the practice and sought care from another doctor who told her that Brock had stitched her labia minora together, leaving only a small opening for her vagina. Two years later, activities like using the bathroom, exercising and sexual intercourse remain painful as a result of the injury, she wrote in the complaint.

In a written response provided by his attorney, Brock said that while he could not speak definitely without being able to identify the patient and consult her record, he doubted the problems she described were caused by his suturing.

Dr. Sharon Winer, a gynecologist who has referred patients to Brock, called him “one of the best OBs that I’ve ever seen” and said that when it comes to healthcare, “you cannot take a single act or activity and take it out of medical context.”

His attorney also provided emails from former patients praising his care.

“He absolutely has a colorful personality, and can be direct to the point of possible offense … to those who don’t know or understand his sense of humor,” one wrote, but “when it comes down to his skill, his bedside manner, and his commitment to patients, he is UNMATCHED.”