1983. After completing both LPN and the RN program there, she transferred to Gardner-Webb to obtain her bachelor's degree (BSN) in nursing. Because of her strong  academic skills, she was encouraged by her professors to consider becoming a doctor, and soon realized that this was the path she had been seeking. She completed her pre-medical course work at Appalachian State University, in Boone, NC, graduating Suma Cum Laude.

She looked for medical school that was strong in Family Practice and found East Carolina University in Greenville, considered to be one of the best in the country. ECU is one of the few medical schools to have a rural health track for family practice students. After receiving her degree from ECU, she went on to complete her residency in Williamston NC. Her first experience as a family doctor was in Murphy NC, where worked in a family practice group for two years. In June of 2000, she had the opportunity to return to the area where her journey began and opened Linville Family Medicine.

Sabine Maas arrived in the United States in 1980 as a tourist from Holland. She fell in love with the mountains of NC as well as one of the local inhabitants. She was married in 1982 and moved to Boone to live. Her first job in Watauga county was working in tobacco. In 1988 her son, Jasper William Spurlock, was born at Sloop Memorial Hospital in Crossnore, NC. Sabine became a US citizen in 1991.

Prior to arriving in the US, Sabine had studied both music and education in the Netherlands. However, Sabine also had a very strong interest in midwifery and family health, and began her education as a nursing student at Caldwell Community College in Lenoir NC in