How to change field values in a view programatically?
Okay, so after a little more googling I found my own answer on a thread on d.o that address this issue with sample code (which I'm condensing a bit):

&lt;?php
/**
 * Implements HOOK_preprocess_views_view_fields().
 */
function MYTHEME_preprocess_views_view_fields(&amp;$vars) {
  $view = $vars['view'];

  //Replace 'VIEW_NAME' with the machine_name of your view.
  if($view-&gt;name == 'VIEW_NAME') {

    //This for loop iterates over all fields in this view.
    foreach ($vars['fields'] as $id =&gt; $field) {

      //Custom formatting logic goes here....

      //Set the field value (not the surrounding tags) here.
      $vars['fields'][$id]-&gt;content = 'my new value';        
    }
  }
}
?&gt;


NOTE Make sure you replace "MYTHEME" with the name of your theme or module in order for this work.