Adding list items to dynamic list sections

I am trying to add items to a dynamically created list section. My list and item templates are created with Alloy. I am creating the list sections with the following:

function createGroupObject(){

for (i=0; i<allStakeholderData.length; i++){
    for (z=0; z<=stakeholderGroups; z++){
        if (allStakeholderData[i].group !== stakeholderGroups[z]){
            stakeholderGroups.push(allStakeholderData[i].group);

            var stakeholderSections = Ti.UI.createListSection({
                id: allStakeholderData[i].group,
                headerTitle: allStakeholderData[i].group
            });

            $.allStakeholdersList.appendSection(stakeholderSections);
        }
    }
}
addStakeholdersToGroups();

}

I think that the problem is in here, because I never see the sections get added, but I don't know if that is due to the later error that I am getting.

I get the error trying to append an item to my sections:

function addStakeholdersToGroups(){

for(i=0; i<allStakeholderData.length; i++){
    var thisTask = [],
        thisGroup = allStakeholderData[i].group;

    thisTask.push({
        stakeholderName: {text:allStakeholderData[i].nameFirst + ' ' + allStakeholderData[i].lastName},
        stakeholderEmail: {text:allStakeholderData[i].email},
        stakeholderCompany: {text:allStakeholderData[i].company},
        template: "allStakeholdersTemplate"
    });

    $.owner.appendItems(thisTask);
    //$[thisGroup].appendItems(thisTask);
}

}

I have commented out the attempt to dynamically choose the correct section to append the item to, and used one that I know is the name of a group. It still gives me an error:

[ERROR] : Script Error { [ERROR] : column = 20; [ERROR] : line = 40; [ERROR] : message = "undefined is not an object (evaluating '$.owner.appendItems')";