set people picker by javascript

Can anyone point me to an example of how I can set a people picker value from javascript. My design is such because I am trying to bind data that lives in another list to a field on the form.  

I've tried something like this but it did not work: 

var thisRow = NWF$("textarea[id=" + "'" + RecommendedActionsAssignedPpl + "'" + "]").closest("table.ms-usereditor");
var thisContents = thisRow.find("div[name='upLevelDiv']");
thisContents.html(oListItem.get_item('AOERecommendedActionAssignedTo'));

(The reference to oListItem.get_item() is CSOM code that reads values from the other list.)

Any help would be much appreciated.